Fujin
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- For the Mortal Kombat character, see Fujin (Mortal Kombat).
Fujin 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 Fujin 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.
Origins
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 [#endnote_Fujin].
The Wind God kept its symbol, the windbag, and its dishevelled appearance throughout this evolution.
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.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)
References
- "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity" by John Boardman (Princeton University Press, 1994) ISBN 0691036802
- "Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural contacts from Greece to Japan" (NHK and Tokyo National Museum, 2003)
- "De l'Indus à l'Oxus, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale", Osmund Bopearachchi, Christine Sachs, ISBN 2951667922
- "The Crossroads of Asia, Transformation in image and symbols", 1992, ISBN 0951839918
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