A fresh group of Japanese Zen ink paintings in the Asian Galleries shows the richness of the museum's Asian collections in this area. While the first installation featured "flung ink" landscapes dating as early as the fifteenth century, the current exhibit concentrates on figurative works of a later generation. Hotei in a Boat, familiar to many regular visitors to the Asian Galleries, depicts a figure who may have been based on a historical individual from Tang dynasty (618-906) China. Portrayed as a wandering, big-bellied monk who carries an even bigger bag and staff, Hotei was believed to be an incarnation of the future Buddha, Maitreya. In Japan Hotei became a folk emblem of good luck and prosperity, possibly contributing to our image of the plump Buddha. Several great Zen priest-painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are represented in the exhibition, allowing comparisons between their varying depictions of figures such as Daruma and Hotei. The creator of this Hotei, Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768), is better known as the second founder of the Rinzai Zen sect. Other artists included are Shokado Shojo (1584-1639) and Kokan (Priest Myoyo, 1653-1717).
