Japan: The Maitreya Buddha Hotei. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

Budai or Pu-Tai (Chinese) or Hotei (Japanese) and Bo Dai (Vietnamese), is a Chinese folkloric deity. His name means 'Cloth Sack', and comes from the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying. He is usually identified with or seen as an incarnation of Maitreya, the future Buddha, so much so that the Budai image is one of the main forms in which Maitreya is depicted in China.

He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the Laughing Buddha (Chinese: Xiao Fo).

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