Hachiman, the Shinto god of archery and warfare rides along the coasts of Japan, the natural extent of landscape under his protection. Anyone who would see him gallop over beach and meadow describes a stoic warrior with a fiery gaze. Driven by burning passion, he knowns no rest and shows no mercy to the irreverent and intrusive. Yet hidden beneath the ornate armor lies a protective paternal gentleness, expressed through his messenger animals. The birds, illuminated in the radiant blue spark of life, purity and discipline, accompany him as emblems of his virtues.

The observer in this scene is a peasant, surprised and thrown to the ground by the deity’s powerful presence. As Hachiman’s immortal gaze penetrates deeply into the moral being and judges it, it remains unclear whether he still perceives the human as one of his wards. What is the life of an ordinary man in the eyes of a heavenly warlord.