BOOK II. 



THE DRAGON IN JAPAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



When treating of the Japanese dragon legends we have first 

 of all to consider the original beliefs of the natives, and to 

 separate these from the conceptions imported from India and 

 China. In the oldest annals the dragons are mentioned in various 

 ways, bat mostly as water-gods, serpent- or dragon-shaped. 



§ 1. Okami. 



In the Nihongi ' we read that Izanagi, when his consort Izanami 

 had died by giving birth to the fire-god Kaguzuchi, cut this child 

 into three pieces each of whicli became a god. The blood which 

 trickled from the upper part of the sword changed into three 

 gods: Kura-okami{^ ^), Kura-yama-tsumi {^ jlj jjj£) and Zwro- 

 viitsu-ha ( ^. 1^ ^ ). Professor Florenz gives in his "Japanische 

 Mythologie''' ^ extensive notes on these three gods. Kura, says he, 

 is explained as "abyss, valley, cleft", although the meaning of 

 the character is "dark". The second character, ^, which in 

 Florenz's note 26 consists of the characters indicating rain and 

 dragon, but in the Japanese text (K. T. K. I, 13) is a combination 

 of the upper part of the character ^ with dragon, is explained 



1 Ch. I, K.T.K. Vol.1, V-i^:^MM^k.Wl.M%W. WuB 

 W fi ' ^ fri UJ JiSi' 5^ r#l K ^ o K- T- K. is Kokushi taikei, @ ^ 

 -Jr* ^ , a modern edition of old historical and legendary works, which we quote as 

 K. T. K. Of the same kind are the Shiseki shuran ( ^ ^ ^ ^ ) and the Gunsho 



ruiju (BK ^ ^ ^) (1795), while the Hyakka selsurin ('Q' ^ |^ ;j)j^ ) con- 

 tains a great number of works of the Tokugawa period. 



2 P. 



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