Wind God and Thunder God (Sliding Doors)

The image shows four of the sliding-door panels side by side. A god with long pale-blue and pink sashes streaming behind him races through a space spread with soft ink clouds. Light colors of white and green are used, and the god is accompanied by gentle clouds made with ink bleeding.

The wind and thunder gods were an important subject for Rimpa masters such as Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ogata Korin and Sakai Hoitsu. While those three placed the two gods on a pair of two-panel gold screens, Kiitsu, a leading pupil of Hoitsu, painted each god on four silk sliding doors. The panels are said to have originally been mounted so that four faced front and back.

The museum points out that lines describing the swell of the bodies, arms and legs, and light shading around the eyes, strengthen the sense of volume. From the signature "Shukurinsai Kiitsu" and the seals "Isando" and "Kaikai," the work is thought to date from his mid-thirties to late forties, after Hoitsu's death, when he was establishing his own style.