The Finance Ministry of Japan released the design for commemorative 500 yen coins that will be issued next year to celebrate the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Gods of wind and thunder will be depicted on the new coins. The designs are based on a historical painting named “Wind God and Thunder God Screens” created by the famous 17th-century artist Tawaraya Sotatsu. The original painting is safeguarded like a national treasure today.

Citizens were given two weeks to vote for their favourite design in June. The polling process was organised through Post as well as online mediums. Three different options were presented to the voters. The selected design took the first spot with 28,741 votes. Images of Mount Fuji and the new National Stadium got 16,451 and 21,053 votes respectively. For the first time, the Finance Ministry chose a coin design through public voting. The thunder God design would be depicted on the commemorative Olympic coin while the Wind God will be featured on the Paralympic coin. Citizens would be given a chance to buy these commemorative issues for face value at banks from July 2020, just before the grand sporting event commences.

Image Courtesy: Finance Ministry of Japan