Great Daruma

Also known as the Great Bodhidarma, the work is a depiction of Bodhidharma, known in Japan as Daruma, a revered Buddhist monk of the 5th or 6th century.

In 1804, during a festival at the Gokoku-ji temple in Edo (modern Tokyo), he created a portrait of Daruma said to be 600 feet (180 m) long, using a broom and buckets full of ink.

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, or the huge thongdrel thankas of Tibetan Buddhism (usually in silk appliqué).

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.