Here Comes the Thunder God

This print engages directly with Raijin, the thunder god of Japanese mythology — a figure with iconographic roots in classical art, notably in Tawaraya Sotatsu's seventeenth-century folding screen and its subsequent reinterpretations by Ogata Korin and others. Shiomi's mokuhanga version, paired with "Here Comes the Wind God," joins a long tradition of artists revisiting the Raijin/Fujin pair. Raijin is conventionally depicted with a ring of taiko drums; Shiomi's treatment would translate the figure into her own visual vocabulary — likely simplifying the traditional iconography into more graphic, planar forms suited to the woodblock medium. The "Here Comes" framing suggests motion or arrival, with compositional energy directed across the picture plane. Carved on cherry or katsura blocks and printed with [sumi](/glossary/sumi) and mineral pigments on [washi](/glossary/washi), the work uses materials that have served Japanese printmaking for centuries to revisit one of its older subjects, situating Shiomi within a continuing lineage rather than a break from it.