105 



and the more I reflect upon it, the more I feel inclined to accept 

 Hirth's explanation of the mitsu-tomoe and futatsu-tomoe (two 

 comma's) as the rolling thunder. Its frequent appearance on 

 lanterns, flags, tiles, and, in olden times, on the tomo or 

 leather shield worn around the wrist by archers, and its frequent 

 use as a badge of arms may be explained by its magic power, 

 averting evil and, in some cases, bringing fertilizing rains. I 

 formerly believed it to be the Yang and Yin symbol, the third 

 comma being the T^ai Kih (^j^/^, the primordium, from which 

 Yang and Yin emanate). This primordium,. which in China is repre- 

 sented by the whole figure, should by mistake have been represented 

 by the Japanese by means of a third comma '. Yang and Yin, Light 

 and Darkness, however, are represented by one white and one black 

 figure, somewhat resembling comma's and forming together a circle. 

 It would be very strange if the ancient Japanese, who closely 

 imitated the Chinese models, had altered this symbol in such a 

 way that its fundamental meaning got lost; for replacing the 

 two white and black . comma's with two or three black ones 

 would have had this effect. Moreover, in Japanese divination, based 

 on the Chinese diagrams, the original Chinese symbol of Yang 

 and Yin is always used and placed in the midst of the eight 

 diagrams. Thus the futatsu-tomoe and mitsu-tomoe are apparently 

 quite different from this symbol, and Hirth rightly identifies 

 them with the ancient Chinese spiral, representing thunder. 

 Moreover, I found the same explanation of the tomoe in the 

 Japanese work Shiojiri ^, which gives a picture of two kinds of 

 spirals, ancient symbols of thunder and clouds. Finally, on Japanese 

 prints the dragon ist often accompanied by a huge spiral, repre- 

 senting the thunderstorm caused by him. 



Is the ball, so often seen in connection with the dragon, and 

 often represented as a spiral emitting flames or as a ball upon 

 which something like a spiral is delineated, identical with the 

 spiral, denoting thunder? Hibth and De Groot suppose so. The 

 latter, considering the dragon's nature of a thundergod, arrived at 

 the conclusion that the dragon must helch out the ball instead of 

 swallowing it, for why should he, who causes thunder, persecute 

 it and try to swallow it? Hirth* speaks about a dragon Which 

 with his claw is putting the thunder into rotation. This is, 



\ Cf. Florenz, Jap. Mythologie, p. 78, note 7. 



2 ^ K , written by Amano Nobukage, ^ |^ >j^ -^, who lived 1660—1733; 



new edition (1907), Ch. XXXI, p. 497. 



3 L.l. p. 233, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



