5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The kami of Shinto have been worshipped in Japan since time immemorial, in thousands of shrines across the archipelago. The imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the cult coexists with Buddhism brought from the mainland. Festivals (matsuri) and purification rites keep these beliefs alive to this day.
Matsuri fill the streets with processions of portable shrines (mikoshi), drums, and dances. The great shrine of Ise, dedicated to Amaterasu, is rebuilt every twenty years, and at hatsumode millions visit the shrines at New Year to ask for blessings.
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At a glance
Raijin (雷神, also venerated as 雷電 / Raiden, 鳴神 / Narukami, and Ikazuchi no Kami) is the Shinto and Buddhist deity of thunder, lightning, and electrical tempests in Japan, symbolizing both the awe-inspiring terror of celestial lightning strikes and the fertile blessings of agricultural rainfall. His earliest canonical textual emergence occurs in Book 1, Chapter 9 of the 'Kojiki': when creator deity Izanagi descended into the underworld of Yomi no Kuni and breached the sacred visual taboo by illuminating Izanami's decaying corpse with his bamboo comb, he witnessed the Eight Thunder Gods (Yakusa no Ikazuchi no Kami: Ō-ikazuchi in the head, Hono-ikazuchi in the chest, Kuro-ikazuchi in the belly, Saku-ikazuchi in the genitals, Waki-ikazuchi in the left hand, Tsuchi-ikazuchi in the right hand, Naru-ikazuchi in the left foot, and Fusu-ikazuchi in the right foot) erupting from her rotting flesh. In ancient Japanese agrarian folklore, lightning is named 'Inazuma' (稲妻, the 'rice spouse'), reflecting the empirical observation that midsummer electrical storms chemically fertilize soil and precede bountiful autumn rice harvests. In the early ninth-century 'Nihon Ryōiki', court retainer Chiisako no Sugaru famously lassoed and captured the Thunder God upon Mount Abe under Emperor Yūryaku's imperial command. Later, the lethal lightning strike upon Kyoto's Seiryōden imperial palace in 930 CE prompted the syncretic identification of the Thunder God with the vengeful spirit (onryō) of exiled statesman Sugawara no Michizane, enshrined at Kitano Tenman-gū. Alongside his inseparable partner Fūjin, Raijin serves as a ferocious Buddhist temple guardian, immortalized in thirteenth-century National Treasure sculptures at Sanjūsangen-dō and seventeenth-century gold-leaf screens by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, depicted as a red-skinned, muscular demon beating drumsticks (bachi) upon a floating ring of taiko drums that reverberate across the heavens.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The ring of drums, the drumsticks, the lightning bolts and the oni-like appearance
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Family
Parents
Izanami no Mikoto (generated from her divine decaying form in the subterranean realm of Yomi according to the Kojiki) and Izanagi no Mikoto
Siblings
Fūjin / Shinatsuhiko no Kami (divine brother of atmospheric winds); and Kagutsuchi no Kami (primordial god of fire)
Raijin
Children
Raita (Kaminari no Ko, the child of thunder featured in medieval and agrarian folk anecdotes)
Genealogy according to Kojiki 1.9; Nihon Shoki 1.20-24; Nihon Ryoiki 1.1; Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Ō no Yasumaro (太安万侶), Kojiki (古事記 / Records of Ancient Matters). translation: Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882) / Donald L. Philippi (1969). read
Toneri Shinnō (舎人親王), Nihon Shoki (日本書紀 / Chronicles of Japan). translation: William George Aston (1896). read
Monge Kyōkai (景戒), Nihon Ryōiki (日本靈異記 / Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition). translation: Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura (1973). read
Priests of Kitano, Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki (北野天神縁起絵巻). translation: Edition by Komatsu Shigemi, Nihon Emaki Taisei. read
Various poets of the court of Nara, Man'yōshū (万葉集 / Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves). translation: Alexander Vovin (2017) / Ian Hideo Levy (1981). read
Studies
Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. George Allen & Unwin, 1975. open
Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai. Harvard University Press, 1973.
Robert Borgen, Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court. Harvard University Asia Center, 1986.
Mark Schumacher, Raijin - Japanese God of Thunder and Lightning. A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist & Shinto Deities, 2013.
Nelly Naumann, Japanese Prehistory: The Material and Spiritual Culture of the Jōmon Period. Asiatische Forschungen, 2000. open
Name and epithets
The teonym Raijin is composed of the kanji 'Rai' (雷, thunder or electrical storm) and 'Jin' (神, kami or divine spirit).
In the ancient sources
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), 712 CE. Imperial chronicle detailing the physiological genesis of the Eight Thunder Gods in Izanami's body and their assault at Yomotsu Hirasaka.
The myths
The Emergence of the Eight Thunders in the Underworld of Yomi. As recorded in Book 1, Chapter 9 of the 'Kojiki', when the demiurgic creator Izanagi no Mikoto journeyed into the subterranean realm of Yomi no Kuni to recl…
Worship and archaeology
The veneration of Raijin thrives across Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples focused on weather regulation, fire protection, and agricultural fertility.
How the god was depicted
Raijin's classical iconography represents an electrifying masterpiece of dynamic sculpture and painting in Japan.
What scholars debate
The Underworld Origin of the Eight Thunders and Organic Decomposition. Scholars of comparative mythology and religious anthropology examine the unique anatomical emergence of the Yakusa no Ikazuchi no Kami in the Kojiki…
After antiquity
Raijin remains an iconic figure in global visual culture and contemporary Japanese life. Tawaraya Sōtatsu's masterpiece screens, reinterpreted by Rinpa masters Ogata Kōrin and Sakai Hōitsu, stand as benchmarks of Japane…
Did you know?
In Japanese folklore, children are told to cover their belly buttons during thunderstorms, based on the playful belief that Raijin steals exposed navels.
Codex relic
Drums of Thunder. A ring of celestial drums he beats to produce the rumble of thunder and the storm.
The rest of this scroll is sealed
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