Antique Japanese Kutani Zen Master Kanzan Jittoku Hanshan and Shide Porcelain Statue 寒山拾得和合二仙

Antique Japanese Ko-Kutani Okimono
Kanzan & Jittoku 寒山拾得和合二仙
Hanshan and Shide Welcoming Visitors
Circa: 19th century and earlier
H 10.5 in.(27cm.), W 7 in.(18cm.), D 6 in.(15cm.)
Minor hairlines, peeling lacquer on base, very good condition!

A rare antique Ko-Kutani style Okimono, vibrant polychrome to gold in color with a mellow age patina; marked and rendered with Sumi for the details, richly glazed foliate motifs; well carved and tinted with colored pigments in contrast with a vitreous porcelain white, depicting two famous late 8th-century Zen monks, Kanzan and Jittoku in Ko-Kutani (17th Century) style, Kanzan appears holding a lotus flower, and Jittoku appears holding a food dish that symbolizing his humility and sweet nature.

Kanzan's name means "Cold Mountain," and so he is sometimes called the "Recluse of Cold Mountain." Jittoku's name means "the Foundling." Kanzan was a mountain recluse or hermit in the Taoist tradition. Jittoku was an orphan in the care of a nearby Buddhist monastery, where he swept the kitchen floors. Jittoku would often bring leftover food from the monastery kitchen to Kanzan. The two would amuse themselves in the evening with poetry and moon viewing. As Taoist immortals, they represent Harmony and Union, commonly associated with a happy marriage. Kanzan and Jittoku were regarded later as incarnations of the bodhisattvas Monju 文殊 (Manjusri) and Fugen 普賢 (Samantabhadra).