190 



Dragon-kings ' crossing a large sea in ships ; on the eighth vessel 

 no dragon was to be seen. When the man asked the reason of 

 this Dragon-king's absence, he received the answer that the absent 

 dragon was at present head-abbot of Hieizan. Evidently Jie was 

 a metamorphosis of TJtpala 2, the last of the eight Dragon-kings. 

 That a dragon was his "real shape" we have seen above'. 



In the Taiheiki* an exile on Sado island prays to different gods 

 to make a ship approach his lonely place. Among these deities 

 are: "Grongen (Manifestations), Kongo doji (Vajra kumara), 

 Tenryu (Heavenly Dragons), Yasha (Yakshas), and the eight 

 Great Dragon-kings" ". Apparently the Nagas last-mentioned were 

 considered to be different from the Heavenly Dragons, which 

 formed one of the four classes of Nagas, mentioned above ". The 

 eight Dragon-kings probably belonged to the second class of 

 Nagas, the "Divine Dragons" (fi$f|). 



§ 8. The Dragon-gods of the inner and outer seas. 



The Gempei seisidki ' says that Fujiwara no Yasuyori, banished 

 to the island called Kikai ga shima, invoked the compassion of 

 "the dragon-gods of the inner and outer seas, and (the other 

 beings of) the eight departments"*. The same expression, i. e. 

 "dragon-gods of the inner and outer seas", is found in the 

 Taiheiki^, where we read how in the year 1333 Nitta Yoshisada, 

 Godaigo's faithful general, invoked them. He was marching towards 

 Kamakura in order to punish the Shikken Hojo Takatoki, and 

 when he arrived at Inamurazaki, a cape between Bnoshima and 

 Kamakura, he prayed to the "Dragon-gods of the inner and 

 outer seas" to make the sea retreat, that he might be able to 

 pass with his troops along the shore and thus easily reach 

 Kamakura. They apparently heard his prayer, for that night the 

 tide suddenly became so low, that Takatoki's ships could not 

 approach the coast, and the arrows of his soldiers could not 

 reach Nitta's troops, which marched along the dry shore straight 



1 Cf, above, Introd., § 1, p. 4. 



2 '^ ^S ^S 'H^ ^ 1 Uhachira Ryu-o. 



3 Book II, Cb. Ill, § 6, p. 170. 



4 Ch. II, p. 9a. 



6 Introd., § 3, p. 21. 7 Cb. VII, p. 183. 



^ P^M^i M ft II A oP • ^^- ^^°"'^' ^"'^™''' § ^' pp- ^ ^1-' "°'^ ^• 



9 Ch. X, p. 76. 



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