Before my Dad passed on in 2010 he and my step-mom Mary had the good sense to down size from their home in Kailua to a condo in town. Closer to all the doctors offices he had been going to with increased fequency in the last few years. All of this requred a serious effort to reduce the amount of stuff they had. One of the things that they both enjoyed was Japanese antiques. After prioritizing and parrying aside all that they could, moving into and decorating their condo there were still a number of things that got stashed away into storage.
I got a call one day from Mary saying she had this statue she had no place for and asked if I would be interested in it. She said she thought of me since the figure depicted in this statue held a fish in his arms.
On a trip to Japan they had visited with one of my uncles in Fukuoka and he had taken them to an antique dealer he knew of. While brousing in the store they came across a statue that they both liked. After considering all the things that had caught their eye, they decided not to get the statue. Upon their return home to Hawaii they found places to display the items they had puchased in their home. For some reason the statue they had left behind stayed on their minds and they decided to call my uncle and asked him to go back to the antique shop to get that statue for them. A few days later uncle calls back and says that the statue they wanted had been sold, but, he had found a similar one that was formed with the same medium as the other. He had bought it and was sending it over. He told them it would be a gift to them since he was not able to get the original.
As much as they did like the statue, it did not make it into the decor of their condo when they moved and it had been stored away. This is why she was calling to offer it to me.
I found some time to stop by to visit with Mary and take a look at the statue. I immediately loved it! A portly man with a beard, holding a large fish in his right arm and holding what looked like a spear in his left. Mary mentioned that when they got the statue the “spear” was bent, not akwardly just not straight and it had bothered my dad so he very carefully straightened it. Looking at the detail on it I’m thinking it’s a fishing pole and may try to restore the bend Dad had taken out.
As soon as I get home with it I go online and see what I can find out about this statue. Turns out it is known as, Ebisu, one the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, also known as the Japanese God of Fishermen!

















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