Quote:
Originally Posted by PockyMePink
There are two different images of Buddha, I believe. One coming from China, the second coming from......India, possibly? Not completely sure of the second Buddha's orgin, but I know for a fact that there are two 
The Chinese image of Buddha is fat, and more commonly known in the western world because....well, we tend to pick on fat people.
The second one however, is fit. Skinny, maybe not "buff" as you've said, but he's far from fat.
The Japanese are probably more familiar with the Chinese image of Buddha versus the "fit" Buddha - that's my own conclusion, so I doubt it's right O__o |
Actually - Hotei is from China, and the fat image is indeed Hotei in China too. (Although I forget his Chinese name.)
The Chinese Buddha is NOT fat. In all the imagery I can find of Buddhas from China, the depiction is pretty much the same as in Japan - a thin guy.
Basically, if I am recalling correctly, the "fat" depiction being mistaken for a Buddha comes basically from a lack of research and poor translation. Early imports of the figure in statues, etc labeled him as "god of luck" or... "buddha of luck". The "buddha" being used as an all purpose word to refer to a god. In Japanese and Chinese Buddhism there are a ton of "buddha", it`s used pretty liberally to refer to gods that have gotten mixed in over time.
No matter how you research it, the guy just isn`t Buddha.
He`s Hotei.