I love the internets. This morning I found this photo in SFGate.com's Day in Pictures:

Images of the thunder (left) and wind gods drawn by 17th-century Japanese artist Sotatsu Tawaraya are depicted on paddy fields growing four varieties of rice in the village of Inakadate, Japan.

An inseparable pair, Fujin (on the right) is the god of wind, and Raijin (on the left) is a the god of thunder, who are thought to live above the clouds. Fujin is usually depicted as a muscled man with a big cloth sack, which is filled with numerous winds. When he opens his sack, a blast of wind blows. Raijin is usually depicted as a muscled man with a series of drums around him, with which he made the rumbling of thunder.

Legend says that the two gods were originally evil demons who opposed Buddha, so Buddha ordered his army of heaven to capture them. After a severe battle between the demons and 33 gods, Fujin and Raijin were finally captured. They have been working for heaven ever since.

Apparently, these two are expected to make an appearance in Boston today.

While googling to find out who these dudes are, I came across this post by Pink Tentacle, who explains about the rice:

The different colors consist of different varieties of rice — the green areas are tsugaru-roman (the local variety), while the purple, yellow and red areas consist of so-called kodaimai, or ancient strains of rice. Mid-August is reportedly the best time to view the rice field.

Read Yomiuri's full post for more art-related info about Fujin and Raijin.

The rest of his site his pretty cool too. Personally, I think the AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin) he blogs about could be particularly cool for scrying, no?

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:53 AM