Alongside the “Hoto” and “Gourd Rock,” these carvings of the wind god, Fujin, and thunder god, Raijin, were moved to the Hotel from Taikoen Park in Osaka. It is believed they were made sometime after the Muromachi Period from a type of stone produced in Mie Prefecture called “Igaseki.” These stone renditions of the elemental deities radiate vitality and strength that cannot be captured on canvas.

For centuries untold, Japanese agriculture has been affected by natural phenomena, and those phenomena have been personified as gods. The characteristic strong gales and fierce thunder were deified and worshiped as the guardian of agriculture, Fujin, and the harbinger of abundance, Raijin, respectively.

The reason why these two gods appear as a pair in art is said to originate from a Chinese Buddhist sculpture of “The Thousand-Armed Kannon and his Twenty-Eight Retainers.” Fujin and Raijin are depicted in that sculpture as servants to the Thousand-Armed Kannon. The statues in this garden also serve at the Kannon’s beck and call, reliably producing wind and rain to bring people happiness.