Rumbling of the Five Elements
Artist: Gen Tamura
Year: 2017
Medium: Acrylic on plywood
Dimensions: 13.0 × 4.3 in. (33 × 11cm)
The five mythological creatures link to the Five Elements.
| Wood | Azure Dragon (Qinlong) |
| Fire | Vermillion Bird (Zhu Que) |
| Earth | Qilin |
| Metal | White Tiger (Bai Hu) |
| Water | Black Tortoise (Xuanwu) |
Originally there were four of them as the symbols of the four directions. The Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Tortoise of the North. After Qilin joined them, they linked to the Five Elements.
When I was painting the five mythological creatures as the symbols of the Wu Xing which consists of every element in the natural world, I felt that the destruction of nature by humans incurs the wrath of them. I painted their roaring profiles in order to emphasize their wrath.