159 



to Jingo's mausoleum, in order to apologize for the cutting of 

 the trees and the killing of the stag. Sutras were read there for 

 five days without any result whatever, and some of the bonzes 

 were so ashamed that they stole away. One of them, however, 

 the well-known high-priest Dento Daihoshi ', gave the advice to 

 have one of his pupils try his magic art of making rain by means 

 of tantras. Then the latter was summoned, and was clever enough 

 to take a limit of five days. The next day an earthquake and 

 a thund^storm announced the good result of the tantras, the 

 rain poured down for three days, and ther^e was great joy in the 

 Palace and in the land. 



Two years before, ia 875, messengers were despatched to fifteen 

 great Buddhist temples, and the Daihannya sutra was read in 

 order to obtain rain I Sixty Buddhist priests read the same holy 

 text in the Taikyokuden (a building of the Palace), and fifteen 

 others recited the Daiunrin seiu kyo (^ ^ f^ |p| pg ^, "Great 

 , Cloud- wheel Rainpraying stitra") ' in the above mentioned park 

 Shinsenen. High oflBcials went to the Imperial mausoleum at 

 Fukakusa and, apologizing for the evil that might have been 

 done, they prayed for benevolence, for the Jingikwan, the 

 Department of Shinto rites and ceremonies, had declared the 

 drought to be a curse on account of the cutting of trees at this 

 mausoleum. 



§ ^. The Sacred Spring Park. 



The Shinsenen ( jjj^ ^ ^; "Sacred Spring Park") was an impor- 

 tant place in the days of old, and it is mentioned innumerable 

 times in the ancient annals, from the Nihon koki down to the 

 Fuso ryakki. The ways in which it is spoken of, however, are 

 quite diflferent. In the older works the Emperors are said to have 

 visited it many times for their amusement, to see westlers dtc, 

 but in the Sandai jitsuroku it appears to have become the place 

 where Buddhist services were held in order to obtain rain. Besides 

 in 875 we read about such a ceremony in 877, when Dento 

 Daih5shi, the same who a month later recommended his pupil 

 for making rain by means of tantras *, went to the park at the 

 head of twenty one other Buddhist priests, and, practising the 

 method of reciting the "Sutra of the golden- winged bird-king" 



•1 -jS jl^ 3^ ^ iSffi; <=*"• ^"*° ryakki, Ch. XX, K.T.K. Vol. VI, p. 598. 



2 Ch. XXVIl, pp. 414 seq. 



3 This is the Mahamegha sutra, treated in the Introduction, § 4, pp. 25 sqq. 



4 See above, § 3, this page. 



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