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Can you help me identify these 9 figures? These figures are on an antique Japanese bowl. At first I thought they were the traditional chinese/japanese Eight Immortals, but then I realized that there are 9 of them, and quite a few of them are females (while among Eight Immortals there is only 1 female figure.) Thanks in advance.

Daoist immortals are recognized in Japan, where they are called "sennin", based on the reading of the same characters used in China (仙人 - transcribed in Mandarin pinyin as "xianren").

Lore surrounding these celestials in both countries recounts their journeys to pay respects to the Queen Mother of the West, in whose garden the peaches of immortality are grown. They also are seen on Japanese porcelains in the company of sages.

If there are more than a couple of female figures in your bowl's motif, it could depict the sennin on a visit with the Queen Mother, who sometimes is shown with a couple of handmaidens. Guanyin (Kannon in Japan), the Goddess of Mercy for Chinese Buddhists, also is found in the company of Daoist immortals on occasion.

In order to identify the immortals, you need to identify the attributes that are shown with or near them. The Wikipedia.org webpage, link below, has a list of the eight immortals, which you can click on to bring up depictions of them with the attributes.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :Daoist Immortals

Bill H.,

Thank you for your reply. You provided a few interesting possibilities.

First is the Eight Immortals. You are right that the items identify each character. I am familiar with the Eight Immortals and their belongings. And I do not think these figures are the Eight Immortals.

Second is the "Sennins on a visit with the Queen Mother", or more precisely, "Sennins on route to the Queen Mother's Peach party." Such a scene usually depicts a few peach trees. And there are indeed a few trees in the picture. Whether they are peach trees, however, is hard to tell.

You are also right about "Queen Mother, who sometimes is shown with a couple of handmaiden". Unfortunately in the picture the female figures are scattered around, and depicted as equals rather than master/servants.

So in a nutshell, I am still looking for the right answer. I suspect these 9 figures are the gods unique in Japanese culture, such as "Six Luck Gods", for example. If only someone can point me to the right direction ...

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