Thunder God (Raijin) (1300s): Art, History and Details

Thunder God (Raijin) (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Thunder (Raijin) and Wind (Fujin) gods first appeared in early Buddhist art in China and Japan and were based on the popular imagery in India that was derived from the life of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. They were shown among a group of demon-monsters flying through the sky above the meditating Shakyamuni in an attempt to frighten away his concentration. Raijin is surrounded by a ring of small drums struck by a stick held in his hand so that he is always accompanied by a thunderous noise. A metal clasp protruding from this sculptures' back indicates that a ring of drums was once attached to the Cleveland Raijin. The matching sculpture, Fujin, is in the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan.

Object facts

• Title: Thunder God (Raijin)
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: wood with traces of gesso and red and black pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 66.7 cm (26 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1972.64

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 63–115.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Shimizu Zenzō, "Japanese Sculptures in America and Canada," Bukkyō geijutsu [佛教藝術= Ars Buddhica] , no. 126 (September 1979), part I, pp. 67–88.

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.