Fūjin

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For the Mortal Kombat character, see Fujin (Mortal Kombat). Fujin is also the name of a UK IT services company.

The Japanese wind god Fūjin, 17th century.

Fūjin (風神, Fūjin^?) is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods. He was present at the creation of the world and when he first let the winds out of his bag, they cleared the morning mists and filled the space between heaven and earth so the sun shone.

He is portrayed as a terrifying dark demon wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders.

A legend of Chinese Buddhism states that Fūjin and Raijin, the god of thunder, were both originally evil demons who opposed Buddha. They were captured in battle with Buddha's army of heaven, and have worked as gods since then.

1 Origins
2 Other media
3 Notes
4 References

[edit] Origins

Iconographical evolution of the Wind God.
Left: Greek Wind God (Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara), Hadda, 2nd century.
Middle: Wind God from Kizil, Tarim Basin, 7th century.
Right: Japanese Wind God Fujin, 17th century.

The iconography of Fujin seems to have its origin in the cultural exchanges along the Silk Road. Starting with the Hellenistic period when Greek occupied parts of Central Asia and India, the Greek wind god Boreas became the god Wardo in Greco-Buddhist art, then a wind deity in China (frescoes of the Tarim Basin, and finally the Japanese Wind God Fujin ^[1].

The Wind God kept its symbol, the windbag, and its dishevelled appearance throughout this evolution.

[edit] Other media

The name "Fujin" has appeared as characters in several video games and anime, including Mortal Kombat, Kenyu Densetsu Yaiba, and Final Fantasy VIII. He (or she) is always associated with the element of wind, and have ties to the god of thunder (at least in name) in their respective incarnations. In Naruto there are the Legendary Stupid Brothers and one of them is named Fuujin.

[edit] Notes

↑ "The Japanese wind god images do not belong to a separate tradition apart from that of their Western counter-parts but share the same origins. (...) One of the characteristics of these Far Eastern wind god images is the wind bag held by this god with both hands, the origin of which can be traced back to the shawl or mantle worn by Boreas/ Oado." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p21)

[edit] References

Boardman, John (1994). The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03680-2.
Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan; Hyogo Kenritsu Bijutsukan (2003). Alexander the Great : East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan. Tokyo: Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan. OCLC 53886263.
Bopearachchi, Osmund (2003). De l'Indus à l'Oxus, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale (in French). Lattes: Association imago-musée de Lattes. ISBN 2-9516679-2-2.
Errington, Elizabeth, Joe Cribb; Maggie Claringbull; Ancient India and Iran Trust; Fitzwilliam Museum (1992). The Crossroads of Asia : transformation in image and symbol in the art of ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cambridge: Ancient India and Iran Trust. ISBN 0-9518399-1-8.

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