“What a heavy mallet—It will be the death of me!”¹

 

In yet another aniconic depiction of Hotei, Hakuin here shows the venerated monk having exchanged his sack for a large mallet, running full tilt and almost exposing his hindquarters. This charming and playful version of Hotei is enhanced by the inscription, the loopy cursive script of which contains a clever pun. “Heavy mallet,” or omoi kine, when read aloud, is a homophone for “mallet of thought.” Given this, an alternate reading of the inscription might be: “This mallet of thought—It will be the death of me!”

 

This wordplay suggests, albeit comically, that even the monk Hotei might fear the weighty revelations that come with the achievement of Zen enlightenment.

 

—Bradley Bailey