' 136 



as "dragon"; in the Bungo Fudohi^ the characters i'fe^j "snake- 

 dragon", are read "okavii". This and the later ideas about Kura- 

 okami show that this divinity is a dragon or snake. He is the 

 deity of rain and snow, and in the Manyoshu (2, 19) he is said 

 to have been prayed to for snow. The Engishiki states that this 

 god Okami had Shinto temples in all provinces. In a variant^ 

 we read that one of the three gods who came forth from the 

 three pieces of Kaguzuchi's body was Taka-okami. This name is 

 explained by one of the commentators as "the dragon-god residing 

 on the mountains", in distinction from Kura-okami, "the dragon- 

 god of the valleys". ^ 



The passage of the Bungo Fudoki referred to by Florenz says 

 that in the village Kutami in Naori district there was a well, 

 out of which water was scooped for the Emperor Keiko (71 — 130 

 A. D.) (not Suinin, as Flqrenz says), when he visited the place. 

 Then a snake-dragon ( i'fe ^ , okami, appeared, whereupon the 

 Emperor said : " This water is certainly dirty (kusai). Scooping 

 water from it should not be allowed". Therefore the well got 

 the name of Kiisa-izumi. 



§ 2. Tamatsumi and Mitsuha. 



As to the second god mentioned in the Nihongi, Kura-yama- 

 tsumi, his name means: "Lord of the Dark Mountains", but one 

 of the commentators explains it as: "Mountain-snake" (yama- 

 tsu[j^]-mi). The name of the third divinity, Kura-mitsu-ha, is 

 perhaps to be translated: " Dark- water-snake ", or " Valley- water- 

 snake"*. Florenz thinks that this god is identical with Mitsuha 

 no Me in the preceding text (Ch. 1, p. 11), although the latter 

 is a female deity. There we read that Izanami, when dying in 

 consequence of the fire-god's birth, gave birth to the earth- 

 goddess Hani-yama-bime and the water-goddess Mitsu-ha no Me 

 i^W H ^^)- Florenz ^ devotes an interesting note to the 



1 ^ ^ ^ i IB. written in 713; Gunsho ruijU, Vol. XVII, nr 499, p. 1126. 



2 Nihongi, Ch. I, p. 16; Florenz, 1. 1., p. 63: ySj ^ ^ 



3 According to Aston (Shinto, p. 153) it is simply "0 Kami", "August god", so 

 that the names Kura o karai and Taka o kami should mean "God of the valleys" and 

 "God of the heights". But in my opinion Florenz's arguments are right. 



4 Florenz translates: ' dunkler Wasserdrache" (dark watei'-dragon), but in note 29 

 the -word ha is explained as "snake", not "dragon". Cf. my treatise on the Snake in 

 Jap. superstition, Ch. II, A, 2 (Serpent-shaped gods of the water), pp. 13 sqq., Mitt, 

 des Seminars f. Orient. Sprachen zu Berlin, Jahrg. XIV, Abt. I, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



