In this intimate portrait of Hotei, the charming Happy Buddha appears chubby with a bald round cranium. He is seated in the classic royal easy lalitasana posture, leaning slightly to a treasure sack by his side, holding a Chinese fan in his right hand, with his left hand rests on the raised knee, revealing his finely carved tongue and teeth in a cheerful smile, and radiating an irrepressibly mirthful individuality that brings alive the benevolence of the Buddha.

The masterfully modeled figure is hand-sculpted, with the artist’s finger imprints visible inside the opened base. Including a hand-scripted variant character Ko (古) on the interior wall. Despite its iron-hard substance from two weeks of 1200°C firing, the distinct senescence on its unglazed surface reveals its ancient origin. Consistent with the style and artistry of the period. This rare Ko-Bizen-yaki okimono (古備前焼) is tentatively attributed to the 17th-century Momoyama period, and certainly no later than the Edo era. In excellent preservation.