161 



Other oflficials, the Court musicians, took place on a dragon-boat 

 ( bI :^ » ^ ^oai with a dragon-shaped prow, see above^ Book I, 

 pp. 83 sqq.) and beat bells and drums, sang and danced, 

 so that their voices " made heaven shake". The next day it 

 thundered and rained a little, but after a short while the sky 

 became clear again, and outside of Kyoto the dust was only 

 moistened a little. On the 25th the result was the same, and 

 on the 26th the officials, who incessantly, night and day, had 

 been making music on the pond, were praised by the Emperor 

 and were allowed to stop the work. 



From this passage we learn that the dragon of the pond in 

 the Sacred Spring Park was originally not an Indian Naga, 

 introduced by the Buddhists, but a Chinese, perhaps a Japanese, 

 dragon, which formerly used to be forced to ascend and to make 

 rain by depriving him of his element, the water, or by stirring 

 him up by a terrible noise, according to the Chinese methods 

 described above '. The Buddhist priests identified this dragon 

 with an Indian Naga-king, whom they caused to give rain by 

 reading sutras. In the seventh century, however, the Chinese 

 ideas prevailed at the Japanese Court, and the Emperor himself 

 sometimes proceeded to a river, and, kneeling and bowing to the 

 four quarters of the compass, prayed to Heaven in the Chinese way. 

 Then it shundered and continuous rains made the crops thrive ^. 



In 875 the old Chinese methods of causing rain apparently 

 had sunk into oblivion at the Japanese Court, but were tried 

 again when the old man turned the attention of the Courtiers 

 to them, because the siitras failed to have any effect. 



Like the Shinto dragon-gods the dragon in the Sacred Spring 

 Park was believed not only to be able to make rain, but also 

 to posses the faculty of stopping it, if it was pouring too abundantly. 

 Thus in 880 a Buddhist priest recited the Kioancho ( ^ XM ' 

 washing the head, baptism) sutra there for three days, in order 

 to stop the rain '. 



Also the Nihon hiryahu^ contains several passages relating to 

 Buddhist rain-prayers in the park. In 972 the so-called "Law 

 (method) of the Rain-praying-sutra" {Seiuhyo-ho, |r M ^S ^' 

 i. e. the doctrine of the Mahamegha sutra, cf. above, pp. 25 sqq.) 



\ Book I, Ch. V, § 3, p. HO; cf. the Chinese legend concerning the Emperor Shi 

 Hwang, whose soldiers made a terrible noise to frighten the dragon god (Book I, Ch. 

 VI, § 7, p. 125). 



2 Fuso ryakki, Ch. IV, K. T. K. Vol. VI, p. 508, the Emperor Kwogyoku in 642. 



3 Sandai jitsuroku, Ch. XXXVII, p. 541. 



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Verh. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensoh. (Afd. Letterk.) N. R. Dl. XIII, N" 2. 11 



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