Japanese netsuke, Raiden the Thunder God with his drum

An image of Netsuke: katabori: Raiden the Thunder God with his drum. Unknown maker, Japan, Teiji or Sadaji. Raiden is sitting on his haunches with his knees up and his raised left hand holding on to the clouds; his drum is strapped to his back and he peers down through a hole in the clouds. Most of the glaze seems to have worn off, yet green clouds, a red band on the drum and white glazed eyes, back pack and shorts are still visible. There are possible traces of gold lacquer on his arms and the back of his head. Circular himotoshi just off centre. Earthenware and wood; circular with moulded relief and glazed, height, whole, 1.8 cm, width, whole, 3.4 cm, circa 1830-1870. Edo (Japanese period, 1615-1868). Notes(s): Raiden is the deity of thunder and storm. His destructive activities cause some fear but the farmers are grateful for the blessings the accompanying rain brings to the crops. Japanese artists give Raiden the appearance of a devil and often treat him with slightly humorous disrespect.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Netsuke: katabori: Raiden the Thunder God with his drum. Unknown maker, Japan, Teiji or Sadaji. Raiden is sitting on his haunches with his knees up and his raised left hand holding on to the clouds; his drum is strapped to his back and he peers down through a hole in the clouds. Most of the glaze seems to have worn off, yet green clouds, a red band on the drum and white glazed eyes, back pack and shorts are still visible. There are possible traces of gold lacquer on his arms and the back of his head. Circular himotoshi just off centre. Earthenware and wood; circular with moulded relief and glazed, height, whole, 1.8 cm, width, whole, 3.4 cm, circa 1830-1870. Edo (Japanese period, 1615-1868). Notes(s): Raiden is the deity of thunder and storm. His destructive activities cause some fear but the farmers are grateful for the blessings the accompanying rain brings to the crops. Japanese artists give Raiden the appearance of a devil and often treat him with slightly humorous disrespect.

Image data

Accession Number: O.46-1991
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal length: 100
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Photographer name: Image Library; Fitzwilliam Museum
Image height: 850 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 110.39kB
Exposure time: 1/30
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1
Captured: 2000:01:03 00:54:53

Key words

19th Century carved circular clouds deity drums Edo Period Fitz_AA glazed god of thunder gods himotoshi Japanese katabori lacquer lacquered lacquering moulded music musical instruments netsuke Raiden relief round Sadaji Teiji thunder god wood wooden

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Japanese netsuke, Raiden the Thunder God with his drum"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-3399364837 Accessed: 2024-11-04 18:12:27

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-3399364837
            |title=Japanese netsuke, Raiden the Thunder God with his drum
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-04 18:12:27|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-214860

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa40/large_O_46_1991_2_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Raiden the Thunder God with his drum"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Japanese netsuke, Raiden the Thunder God with his drum</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>