Figure of Budai or Hotei with Jar

The production of decorative figures like this one, referred to as magots or pagodes in European texts, was the result of an 18th-century European interest in Chinese and Japanese culture and porcelain. Budai, pronounced Hotei in Japanese, was a semilegendary Chinese monk known in Japan through the transmission of Chan Bhuddism. This figure’s decoration with multicolor overglaze enamels on a milky-white is typical of Japanese Kakiemon style.