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Antique Japanese Bone Netsuke, Hotei browse these categories for related items... All Items: Antiques:Regional Art:Asian:Japanese:Netsuke and Related: Pre 1900: item # 1119872 Please refer to our stock # MOR3070 when inquiring.
The Kura 817-2 Kannonji Monzen-cho Kamigyo-ku Kyoto 602-8385 tel.81-75-201-3497 Guest Book 395.00 |
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A tiny mingei image of the god of fortune Hotei carved from what appears to my untrained eye to be bone, possibly Stag-horn. He squats, grinning up at the sky, his ubiquitous sack voluminous behind. Through the back and down through the bottom is bored a hole for the string. The figure is 1-1/2 inches (4 cm) tall and likely dates from the 19th century (Late Edo to Meiji). These are not modern reproductions, but genuine antique Japanese Netsuke coming from Kyoto. Hotei (Ch. Budai) is the god of happiness, usually depicted as a smiling rotund bald man with a huge sack which contains all of his possessions. The figure is based on the 10th century eccentric Chan Monk Budaishi who wandered the country with nothing but his one sack of possessions, always content. He has been deified as the embodiment of the Maitreya Buddha, and his name literally means cloth sack. |
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