CHAPTER IV. 



THE INDIAN NAGA IN JAPAN. 



As we have seen above ', the Indian Naga legends served 

 already in the time of the JSfihongi, i. e. in the beginning of the 

 eighth century, to embellish the old tales concerning the Japanese 

 sea-gods. The magnificent palace of Oho-watatsumi no Mikoto 

 at the bottom of the sea, and the "Jewel which grants all 

 desires" of the Empress Jingo left no doubt about their Indian 

 origin. It is no wonder then, that the more Buddha's Law 

 flourished in Japan, the more the original Japanese sea and 

 river-gods had to give way to the Indian conquerors; therefore 

 most of the dragons, mentioned in later works, are Nagas. In 

 Chapter III we have seen that the rain-prayers, first offered 

 exclusively to different Shinto gods, especially to . the dragon- 

 shaped river-deities, from the ninth century were also addressed 

 to the Nagas. In times of drought the Buddhist priests were 

 more and more looked upon by the Emperors as the most powerful 

 rescuers of the country, and large crowds of Shingon priests recited 

 their sutras in the Palace as well as at the Dragon pond of the 

 Sacred Spring Park, in order to cause the Nagas to make it rain 

 all over the country. 



As to the legends, referred to in this Chapter, many of them, 

 although relating to Nagas, at the same time have Chinese 

 features. This is quite clear, for it was via China that all the 

 Indian tales came to Japan. Moreover, many originally Japanese 

 dragons, to which Chinese legends were applied, were afterwards 

 identified with Nagas, so that a blending of ideas was the result. 



§ 1. The Dragon-kings revere Buddha's Law. 



The Sandai jitsuroku^ (901 A.D.) quotes a written supplication 

 of the Lord of Harima, Sugawara no Koreyoshi (812—880), to 



1 Book II, Ch. I, §§ 5 and 6, pp. 139 sqq. 



2Ch. V, p.82: ^xmmm. M^^:^ji^zm. M#1W 



■^ IMl ^ ^ Another text gives 3^ instead of »^ ; then it would, mean: "The 

 Drao'on-kings transpose the precious stones of the water regions". 



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