Hi No Kami

Hi No Kami — the Fire God, the Shinto deity of the hearth and forge, also identified with the sun's purifying heat — appears in this 1937 print among Munakata's extraordinary burst of sacred imagery from that year. The fire deity as subject gave Munakata the opportunity to render divine energy in its most dynamic, consuming form: the god of fire is inherently a subject of movement, heat, and transformation, all qualities that his vigorous carving style could embody with exceptional immediacy. The figure would emerge from the woodblock with the erupting energy appropriate to its nature.