The ''Great Daruma'' was a monumental portrait created by Japanese artist

Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...

on 5 October 1817. Also known as the ''Great Bodhidarma'', the work is a depiction of

Bodhidharma Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to a 17th century apo ...

, known in Japan as Daruma, a revered Buddhist monk of the 5th or 6th century. The original artwork was destroyed by the bombing of Nagoya in May 1945.

Background

The ''Great Daruma'' was not Hokusai's first monumental portrait. In 1804, during a festival at the

Gokoku-ji is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Tokyo's Bunkyō. History This Buddhist temple was established by the fifth shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who dedicated it to his mother. It is notable for surviving the American air raids during World War II, w ...

temple in Edo (modern

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

), he created a portrait of Daruma said to be long, using a broom and buckets full of ink.

Conception

Hokusai made the ''Great Daruma'' in a courtyard beside the

Hongan-ji Nagoya Betsuin The Hongan-ji Nagoya Betsuin (本願寺派名古屋別院) is a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist temple located in Naka ward, Nagoya in central Japan. The temple is a short distance south of Ōsu Kannon Station. It is also known a ''Nishi Betsuin'' (西� ...

Buddhist temple in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

, Japan. The portrait depicted the head of the monk and his upper body swathed in flowing robes. It was drawn on a large expanse of paper, measuring , equivalent to approximately 120 standard

tatami A is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. Tatamis are made in standard sizes, twice as long as wide, about 0.9 m by 1.8 m depending on the region. In martial arts, tatami are the floor used for traini ...

mats of each. The eyes were wide, the nose long, and the mouth across. The event was advertised in advance to draw a large crowd. Hokusai and his pupils wore special attire. They spent the morning preparing the vats of ink and laying the extra thick paper on a bed of straw. Hokusai worked for hours adding bold lines of ink until the image was finally revealed when the paper was hoisted into the air using a large wooden beam attached to one end, like a gigantic

hanging scroll A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit East Asian painting and calligraphy. The hanging scroll was displayed in a room for appreciation; it is to be distinguished from the handscroll, which was narrower and ...

, or the huge

thongdrel A Thongdrel (alt. throngdrel) is a large appliqué religious image normally only unveiled during ''tsechus'', the main religious festivals in Bhutan. They are the largest form of ''thangka'' paintings in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. ...

thanka A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usuall ...

s of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

(usually in silk appliqué).

Reception

As a result of this dramatic feat, Hokusai became known in Nagoya as "Daruma-sen", the Daruma master. The triumph brought greater attention to Hokusai, enabling him to sell more prints to the public, including prints of the ''Great Daruma''. He published a new volume of his

Manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

sketches in 1817. The event was recounted in a popular song and celebrated in a printed

surimono are a genre of Japanese woodblock print. They were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. Surimono literally means "printed thing". Being produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of ''literati'', ...

and large reproduction (pictured). The feat was described in Kōriki Enkōan's ''Detailed Illustrations of Hokusai’s Large Scale Sketches'' the same year. A later illustrated account features in Iijima Hanjūrō's 1893 ''Biography of Katsushika Hokusai''. In 2017, the bicentennial anniversary of the event, the painting was recreated with the cooperation of Aichi University of the Arts and

Nagoya City Museum The is a museum of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The Nagoya City Museum was established in 1977. Its collection includes archaeological materials, fine art, crafts, documents, books and folk materials including samurai armor a ...

Destruction

The original artwork survived in Nagoya until May 1945, when it was destroyed along with the wooden temple building in the

bombing of Nagoya in World War II The Bombing of Nagoya in World War II by the United States Army Air Forces took place as part of the air raids on Japan during the closing months of the war. History The first strategic bombing attack on Nagoya was on April 18, 1942, as part ...

. Contemporaneous promotional handbills survive, with some held at the

Gallery

Hokusai's Great Daruma handbill.jpg, "Handbill for Hokusai’s Colossal Image Sketch" (北斎大画即書引札), 1817 Kōriki Enkōan, Hokusai Great Daruma preparation.png, From Kōriki Enkōan's ''Detailed Illustrations of Hokusai’s Large Scale Sketches'' (北斎大画即書細図), 1817 Kōriki Enkōan, Great Daruma painting detail.png, From Kōriki Enkōan's ''Detailed Illustrations of Hokusai’s Large Scale Sketches'', 1817 Hanging daruma.jpg, Raising the image. From Kōriki Enkōan's ''Detailed Illustrations of Hokusai’s Large Scale Sketches'', 1817

References

特別展　北斎だるせん
(Special exhibition Hokusai), Nagoya City Museum
Hanging scroll of Daruma smiling, traditionally attributed to Hokusai
British Museum * {{Hokusai 1817 paintings Works by Hokusai Culture in Nagoya History of Nagoya Buddhist paintings Lost works of art