God of Thunder

A second design of Raijin, the thunder god, indicating that Shoun returned to the subject in a separate composition rather than producing a single canonical image. Pairs or variants of mythological figures were a familiar feature of ukiyo-e publishing, sometimes issued as companion sheets pairing Raijin with Fujin, the wind god, and sometimes as alternative compositions exploring different poses, viewpoints, or color schemes. The second sheet would have used its own keyblock cut from cherry wood and a fresh set of color blocks, with the printer applying baren pressure to build up the figure's dark musculature and the lacquer-like reds and blacks of the drums. Comparison between the two designs would let a collector judge how Shoun varied gesture, scale, or background within the same iconographic constraint. The existence of more than one Raijin within his oeuvre situates him within a long line of Japanese artists who treated this figure as a recurring subject from the medieval period onward.