Wind God and Thunder God
The wind god with his bag and the thunder god with his drums soar across two screens of gold. The centre is empty.
The gold is space – the gods are entering the picture from the edges.
Tawaraya Sōtatsu was active in Kyoto in the early 17th century. He ran a workshop that painted fans and decorated paper, among other things, and he worked with the calligrapher Hon’ami Kōetsu. Sōtatsu is regarded as the founder of Rinpa, an artistic tradition characterised by strong colours, gold and decorative simplification. Wind God and Thunder God belongs to the Zen temple of Kennin-ji in Kyoto and is designated a National Treasure. Little is known of his life, and neither the year of his birth nor of his death is certain.
The work consists of two folding screens of two panels each. Each screen is about 1.5 metres high and 1.7 metres wide. On the right-hand screen the wind god Fūjin flies on a cloud. He is green and holds a large bag of wind above his head. On the left flies the thunder god Raijin, who is white and surrounded by a ring of drums. Both have a wild and playful expression.
The composition is bold. The gods are placed in the outer corners of the screens, so that they appear to be entering the picture. The centre is empty, covered in gold. The empty space between them creates tension, as if a storm will break when they meet. The forms are simplified and clear, and most of the picture is air.
The background is covered in square sheets of gold leaf that show as a faint grid. The clouds are painted with a technique called tarashikomi, which involves applying paint or ink to a surface that is still wet, so that it spreads and forms soft, irregular edges. The technique became a hallmark of Rinpa.
The figures derive from older images of the wind and thunder gods, such as sculptures and narrative scrolls of the Kamakura period. Sōtatsu renewed them by making them larger and setting them on an empty gold ground. The wind and thunder gods are ancient deities in both Buddhism and folk religion, capable of causing harm as well as bringing rain to the crops.
Sōtatsu’s work was copied by later Rinpa artists. Ogata Kōrin made his own version in the early 18th century, and Sakai Hōitsu made one in the 19th century. The copies show how the tradition was passed on through artists studying and interpreting one another’s work, even though they were not teacher and pupil.
Wind God and Thunder God is now regarded as one of the best-known works of Japanese art. The screens are usually kept at the Kyoto National Museum, while the temple displays a copy. The motif has become a popular image, appearing on everything from posters to packaging.