Vase

Location: Japan

Materials: earthenware, painted and gilded

Dimensions: height 23.5 cm

Accession Number: S 52

Other Notes:

An earthenware vase, the tapering cylindrical body painted and gilt with Raijin, also named Raiden, the thunder god, encircled by drums, above numerous figures fleeing from a storm of thunder and lightning.

Raijin was originally a snake-shaped Shinto deity, but was also sometimes imagined as a small boy, accompanied by a Shinto priestess. It was not until the Edo Period that he took the form of an oni (demon) with drums, under the influence of Buddhist iconography.

For Takebe Shoko see also S 121

Bibliography:

O. Impey, M. Fairley (eds.), Meiji No Takara: Treasures Of Imperial Japan: Ceramics Vol II, London 1995, cat. 151.
J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 110, p. 177.