God of Thunder (Raijin) (mid-1600s): Art, History and Details

God of Thunder (Raijin) (mid-1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Such depictions of the God of Thunder originated in Buddhist art. Here, the image was painted on paper covered with gold dust, a technique often found in paintings by Tawaraya Sotatsu or of the Sotatsu school. This gold technique and the "Inen" seal here suggest that the anonymous painter of this screen was probably associated with the Sotatsu workshop. The artist used a prototype borrowed from earlier Japanese narrative painting—rather than mechanically reproducing Sotatsu’s image—and created a bold, innovative image that served the world of play and leisure in early Edo Japan. The theme of "God of Thunder" was often paired with "God of Wind" and has been frequently reinterpreted by generations of Rimpa artists. Unfortunately, the screen God of Wind which would have accompanied this God of Thunder cannot be located.

Object facts

• Title: God of Thunder (Raijin)
• Date: mid-1600s
• Creator attribution: Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 150.4 x 343 cm (59 3/16 x 135 1/16 in.); Overall: 162.4 x 355.8 cm (63 15/16 x 140 1/16 in.); Panel: 162.4 x 59.2 cm (63 15/16 x 23 5/16 in.); with frame: 165.6 x 358.6 cm (65 3/16 x 141 3/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2004.86

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chung, Anita. "God of Thunder." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 45, no. 3 (March 2005): 12–14.
• Masello, David, Dick Kagan, and Doris Goldstein. “Top 100 Treasures.” Art & Antiques vol. 28, no. 11 (November 2005): 75–103.
• Tsuji, Nobuo 辻惟雄, Takeo Izumi 泉武夫, Yūji Yamashita 山下裕二 , Masaaki Itakura 板倉聖哲, and Toshinobu Yasumura 安村敏信 . Sōtatsu, Kōrin to Katsura Rikyū: Edo jidai II [宗達・光琳と桂離宮: 江戶時代 II]. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan, 2013.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.