![](Tomoe%20logo%202.jpg)
JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION
QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION
MYSTERIES
INAZUMA |
稲妻 |
いなずま |
A Flash of lightning |
Lightning as Represented in Japanese
Prints
(No
print shown on this page is being offered for sale by Ukiyo-e Prints.)
A person could write a book on the history
of lightning --- and perhaps someone has. Anyone who has grown up in one of the
zones where lightning is so frequent knows either fascination or fear or both.
Lying in bed at night children would use the system their fathers had taught
them to gauge the distance between themselves and the brilliant flashes that lit
their night skies: one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three....and so on. But
that was my childhood. Could it have been much different in Japan or in ancient
Greece when Zeus unleashed his wrath or in Scandinavia where Thor frightened
Viking children --- and superstitious adults? All of us know that Benjamin
Franklin lived to tell about his experiment and that lightning zapped
Boris Karloff's Frankenstein into life. And yet despite all of our
scientific advances lightning still retains its mystery and continues to
touch the child in each of us.
When it comes to art
there are very few
representations of lightning in the West. The earliest
and most dramatic can be seen in Giorgione's "The Tempest" ca. 1510-15. Although
there must have been other examples through the centuries it wasn't until the
1868 that the American Martin Johnson Heade created another such dramatic effect
in his "Thunderstorm on Narragansett Bay" .
|
![](Image%20File%201/Giorgione_Tempest_lightning_dtl.jpg) |
![](headeThunder%20Storm%20on%20Narragansett%20Bay%20dtl.jpg) |
However, lightning
appears far more frequently in Japanese prints although its appearance is still
somewhat rare. Perhaps it is the graphic nature of Japanese designs which
lends itself more readily to such examples. |
THE THUNDERBOLT REALM
|
![](Vajra_bell2.jpg) |
The bell with the three prongs at the top is a symbol of esoteric Buddhism
used by the Shingon and Tendai sects. Its origins are found in early
Indo-Aryan culture where it was a weapon representative of a thunderbolt. In
Japan it is known as a kongōsho, but elsewhere it is referred to as a vajra.
It can have one, two, three or five prongs, the last reserved for use by the
highest ranking priests. Or, it could be a double vajra with up to six
prongs. I don't know when the bell was added, but it might be
interesting to find out.
As a symbolic weapon the vajra is used in the Thunderbolt Realm, one of two
forms of Buddhist reality, and has the power to cut through obstacles which
prevent enlightenment. As such it can assist the karmic self.
If you wish to see the whole print of which the bell is
just one small detail click on the image above. |
TORII KIYOSHIGE (fl. 1720-60)
Detail of
print of Ogino Isaburo I as Onna-Narukami
(the Goddess of Thunder.) |
|
清
重
|
![](Torii%20Kiyoshige%20lightning%20eg.jpg) |
|
This is the earliest example I could find so far. |
UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861)
Detail of a print showing Yorimasa
killing the nue
after having shot an arrow into a cloud.
Date: ca. 1830 |
|
国
芳
|
![](Kuniyoshi's_Yorimasa_killing_the_nue[1].jpg) |
UTAGAWA KUNISADA (1786-1864)
Detail of long surimono showing
Ichikawa Danjuro VII
as Sugiwara no Michizane (845-903) in a scene from
Sugiwara denju tenarai kagami.
Date: 1831 |
|
国
貞
|
![](Kunisada_Sugiwara_lightning_dtl[1].jpg) |
TAISO YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892)
Detail of Sugiwara no Michizane
(845-903) conjuring a thunderstorm
on Mt. Tenpai.
This print is basically the same scene as the image
found immediately above in Kunisada's surimono .
Date: 1881 |
|
芳
年
|
![](Yoshi.%20Michizane%20lightning%20dtl.jpg) |
TOYOHARA KUNICHIKA (1835-1900) Detail of a triptych by Kunichika from
the 9th month, 1896.
This image represents the spirit of Aku Genta
Yoshihira,
a 12th century figure who was beheaded
at the age of 20 by the Taira. |
|
国
周 |
![](Kunichika_triptych_dtl.jpg) |
The greatest commonality of the five
examples shown immediately above is lightning as an element of the supernatural.
In the first image it is the thunder god which directs the flashes. In the
second it is simply an accompaniment while in the last three the spirits of the
dead seem to be able to conjure forth the awesome powers of nature. However, the
lightning seen in the Toyokuni III print from the series of "36 Selected
Beauties" --- which was the impetus of this short illustrated essay --- seems to
serve a more straight forward and mundane function. This is also true of the
other four print details shown below. |
UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI III --- A.K.A.
KUNISADA (1786-1864)
Detail of a print from the series "36
Selected Beauties"
Date: 1st month, 1861 |
|
豊
国
三
代
|
![](Toyo%20III%20-%20%20courtesan%20watching%20lightning%20dtl..JPG) |
UTAGAWA KUNISADA (1786-1864)
Detail of the central panel of a triptych
"Shower on the Way Home" from "The Sixth-Month Fuji."
There is a spiritual element to the theme of this print, but it is far more
tenuous and possibly allegorical.
Date: ca. late 1820s |
|
国
貞
|
![](Kunisada%20-%20washerwoman%20caught%20in%20a%20sudden%20storm.jpg) |
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Detail of image of
"Mt. Fuji in Storm: Rainstorm Beneath the Summit"
from the series "36 Views of Mt. Fuji".
Date: Early 1830s |
|
北
斎
|
![](Fuji%20thunderstorm%201830s%20dtl.jpg) |
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Detail of image of
"Mt. Fuji in Storm: Rainstorm Beneath the Summit"
from the series "36 Views of Mt. Fuji".
Date: Early 1830s --- this example is
from a later edition.
|
|
北
斎
|
![](Fuji%20thunderstorm%20-%20late%20w.%20trees%20dtl.jpg) |
As we pointed out in the introduction
to this page lightning is seen far more frequently in Japanese woodblock
prints than it is in the art of the West. However, what is most striking
about this representation is that the area below the lightning bolt is shown
as a brightened field. The only other similar example we have encountered is
in the Toyokuni III print from the series of "36 Selected Beauties." |
LIGHTNING AS A TEXTILE PATTERN |
UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI III --- A.K.A.
KUNISADA (1786-1864)
Detail of the lightning pattern
seen on
the robe of Fuwa Banzaemon.
Date: Ca. 1852 |
|
三
代
豊
国
|
![](Toyo.III.Fuwa.Bunzaemon.dtl.2.jpg) |
Merrily Baird's excellent reference
volume Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design, page 39,
refers to certain lightning motifs as "tightly coiled forms in a variety of
geometric shapes." This is clearly and dramatically displayed on the robe
pattern shown above. The origin of such motifs like so many others is
Chinese. |
LIGHTNING AS A TATTOO PATTERN |
UTAGAWA KUNIKAZU
(Fl. ca. 1848-68)
Detail of
Mimasu Daigoro IV as Goshaku Somegoro.
Date: Ca. 1858-9
|
|
国
員 |
![](Kunikazu%20lightning%20tattoo%20dtl.%201858-9.jpg) |
Horimono or the Japanese art of tattoo offers innumerable powerful
motifs.
As you can see lightning can be one of the most effective. |
UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861)
Detail of a
giga or comic print
of an oni
sharpening the edges of lightning bolts.
These could be
used to snag and haul in evil doers. |
|
国
芳
|
![](Kuniyoshi_oni_honing_lightning_dtl..jpg) |
Notice the similarities between the lightning bolts seen in the examples
above and below
to the earliest one shown on this page and to that of the fabric design by
Toyokuni III. |
UTAGAWA
KUNIYOSHI
(1797-1861)
Detail of giga
print. |
|
国
芳
|
![](Kuniyoshi_oni_using_lightning.jpg) |
LIGHTNING IN SOSAKU HANGA |
MIKE LYON (American)
Born 1951
"The Fisherman & His
Wife"
Color woodcut
Date: 1996
Size: Ca. 9.5" x 14"
The full image is being shown with the
permission and encouragement of the
artist. |
![](Fishwife.jpg) |
I strongly recommend that the reader of
this page on lightning in Japanese prints visit the website of the American
woodblock print artist being shown here. His work can be found at:
http://mlyon.com/
|
|
While speaking long distance recently a
friend reminded me of this delightful print. While it is not Japanese it is
by a remarkable artist who has honed his skills in the area of sosaku
hanga, i.e., prints which are drawn, carved and printed by the artist
himself. This is a 20th century phenomenon totally unlike the tradition of
ukiyo-e images seen above which involved an artist, a publisher, a
master carver and a whole host of assistants. If you visit Mike's website
you will see the degree of refinement he has attained and how easily you
could mistake his most recent works for those of a shin hanga artist
and not that of a sosaku one. (Shin hanga are the 20th century
equivalents of traditional ukiyo-e.) |
|