Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) Hakue Kannon (White-robed Kannon)Edo period (1615-1868), mid-18th century
Kakejiku (hanging scroll), ink on paper in antique silk mounts, depicting the bodhisattva Kannon clothed in white robes seated on a pile of leaves, wearing her typical compassionate smile, at her right a branch of willow in a vase standing on a rock, inscribed above Jigen shijujo fukujukai muryo (The bodhisattva's merciful eye watches over all living things, a limitless ocean of happiness and long life), the words fukuju (happiness and long life) written in larger characters, the painting of Kannon sealed Hakuin and Ekaku, the inscription preceded by a seal Rinzai seishu (The true Rinzai [Zen] succession) and concluding with two unread seals; with a wood tomobako storage box, the exterior inscribed Entsu daishi, Shoshukokushi shinhitsu (Kannon, an authentic painting by Hakuin); the interior with a certification by Shiya Shoun (also known as Genpo Sohan, 1874-1922), Abbot of Daitokuji Temple; accompanied by a label recording that the present lot was exhibited in Kumamoto in 1970 (see below). Overall: 193cm x 42.2cm (76in x 16 5/8in); image: 114.5cm x 34.5cm (45in x 13½in). (3).注脚Exhibited:
Kumamoto Nichinichi Shinbun Newspaper, Koso iboku ten (Exhibition of Works in Ink by Buddhist Masters), Kumamoto City, Tsuruya Department Store, 22-24 October, 1970.

For other Hakuin depictions of Kannon with similar iconography and attributes, compare Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Stephen Addiss, The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin, Boston, Shambhala Publications, 2010, pl. 2.7 and 2.8; the branch of willow seen to the left of the composition can be used to ward off disaster or illness, while the bodhisattva's white robes and leaf or grass mat—immortalized in a scroll by Kano Motonobu in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—became favourite attributes during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.