Raijin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a god

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

of lightning

Lightning

Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

, thunder

Thunder

Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...

and storm

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

s in the Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

and in Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami...

.

His name is derived from the Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

words rai (雷, meaning ‘thunder’) and shin (神, ‘god’). He is typically depicted as a demon

Demon

call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...

beating drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s to create thunder, usually with the symbol tomoe

Tomoe

A tomoe or tomoye is a Japanese abstract shape that resembles a comma or the usual form of magatama. It is a common design element in and corporate logos, particularly in triplicate whorls known as . Some view the mitsudomoe as representative of the threefold division at the heart of the...

drawn on the drums. He is also known by the following names:

Kaminari-sama: kaminari (神, kami, spirit or deity + 雷, nari, thunder) and -sama (様, a Japanese honorific
Japanese honorifics
The Japanese language has many honorifics, parts of speech which show respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.The system of honorifics...

meaning "master")
Raiden-sama: rai (雷, thunder), den (電, lightning), and -sama (様
Japanese honorifics
The Japanese language has many honorifics, parts of speech which show respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.The system of honorifics...

, master)
Narukami: naru (鳴, thundering/rolling) and kami (神, spirit or deity)

In Japanese culture

Some Japanese parents tell their children to hide their belly buttons (or navels) during thunderstorms. This is due to a folk belief that Raijin is sometimes credited with eating the navel

Navel

The navel is a scar on the abdomen caused when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby...

s or abdomen of children, and in the event of thunder, parents traditionally tell their children to hide their navels so that they are not taken away. Raijin's companion is the demon Raiju

Raiju

Raijū is a legendary creature from Japanese mythology. Its body is composed of either lightning or fire and may be in the shape of a cat, tanuki, monkey, or weasel. The form of a white and blue wolf is also common...

. In Japanese art, the deity is often depicted together with Fūjin

Fujin

is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods.He is portrayed as a terrifying dark demon, resembling a red headed black humanoid wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders....

, the wind god.

Raijin is a well-known deity and his fame has spawned characters in many forms of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese media. He is often mocked, for example in an episode of Kyorochan
Kyorochan
is a Japanese cartoon bird/parrot that serves as a mascot for a brand of Morinaga chocolate known as ChocoBall. He had his own 1999–2000 anime series.The end titles of the anime series use a form of claymation...

, or in Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game that is published and developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was first released in Japan, and then later in South Korea and North America...

where he is one of the largest and most valuable objects in the game that the Prince can roll into his damashi ball of trash. In the tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

series Madan Senki Ryukendo
Madan Senki Ryukendo
, is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It was Takara and We've Inc's first attempt at a Sentai-type show. The program aired at 7:00 JST on TV Aichi from January 8 to December 31, 2006...

, all three Madan Warriors, right after transforming, say their names followed by the word "Raijin!", which stands for "wake up!" or "stand up!". He also appears in a minor role in the Japanese role playing game Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII
is a role-playing video game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and for Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, removing magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically...

as one of Seifer Almasy's henchmen. In Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...

, he and his brother join to form the Masamune.

Popular culture

In Western culture, Raijin is usually known as Raiden (rai (雷, thunder) + den (電, lightning)), and depicted as a tall monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

wearing a large straw hat (these hats are used widely throughout Asia to keep off rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

), with the power to create storms, thunder, and lightning. The first use of this archetype was an appearance with other Eastern elemental gods in the 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 American martial arts comedy film directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell as truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown...

, though Lei Gong

Lei Gong

In Chinese mythology, Lei Gong , also called Lei Kung, or Lei Shen , is the Chinese Taoist deity who, when so ordered by heaven, punishes both earthly mortals guilty of secret crimes and evil spirits who have used their knowledge of Taoism to harm human beings...

, a similar Chinese god, might have influenced the character in the film.

It entered mainstream

Mainstream

Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....

pop culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

with an adaptation of Raiden

Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

Raiden is a player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Raiden, also known as Lord Raiden, is a thunder god of the Mortal Kombat universe and protector of Earthrealm. He commands many supernatural abilities such as the ability to teleport, control over lightning, and flight...

the 1992 fighting game

1992 in video gaming

-Events:-Notable releases:* Gremlin Graphics releases Zool, Amiga's answer to Mario and Sonic. It goes on to become the best selling Commodore Amiga game, boosting the already popular computer to be the leading gaming machine in Europe....

Mortal Kombat. He is somewhat similar to his appearance in Big Trouble In Little China, and repeated depictions of the character in multiple games in the series, making him widely recognizable in the United States.

In Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima

is a Japanese game director originally employed at Konami. He is currently the director of Kojima Productions and was promoted to Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2011...

's video game franchise Metal Gear
Metal Gear
Metal Gear is a series of video games.Metal Gear may also refer to:*Metal Gear , bipedal tanks appearing in the Metal Gear series-Metal Gear video game series:...

, a character named Jack

Raiden (Metal Gear)

, whose real name is , is a video game character in the Metal Gear series of stealth games by Konami. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, Raiden was introduced in the series as the main playable character of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty...

, codename Raiden, possesses extraordinary abilities, using a katana as his weapon and, later, uses lightning powers to an extent.

Raijin appears in the popular American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

video game Warcraft 3 as a mod

Mod (computer gaming)

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

called Defense Of The Ancients
Defense of the Ancients
Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft...

, a popular thunder-based hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

.

In the popular video game franchise, Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

, Thundurus is an Electric/Flying type Pokémon, reflecting Raijin's abilities.

In Eiichiro Oda's One Piece

One Piece

is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 64th volume released as...

, the main antagonist in the "Skypiea" arc, "Enel" [Sometimes known as "Eneru"] is loosely based on Raijin. He ate the Devil's Fruit "Goro Goro no Mi" granting him the powers of lightning, and carries a ring of Drums on his back.

Raijin was referred as the Nakamura Rai-jin turbo in Burnout Paradise.

In Season Four of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin off, Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...

a character was introduced named Gwen Raiden a woman known for summoning electricity and using such abilities to facilitate robberies.

In Japanese culture

Popular culture

See also