191 



to Kamakura. There they forced their way into the town and 

 caused Takatoki to disembowel himself. 



§ 9. Dragon-palaces. 



According to the Genko Shakusho • the Chinese bonze Kien 

 Chen ^, when crossing the sea on his way to Japan, was invited 

 by a dragon-god to come to his palace and preach for him ^ 

 After having complied with the request the priest continued his 

 journey and at last (in 762) arrived in Kyushu (then called 

 Dazaifu). 



The famous legend concerning Tawara Toda, which is found 

 in the Honclio kwaidan koji *, is a blending of Chinese and Indian 

 ideas. It runs as follows. In the Hidesato temple, a Shinto shrine 

 near the Seta bridge in Omi province, Tawara Toda ^, " Rice 

 bag Toda", is worshipped together with Suifushin^, the "God of 

 the Water Department", If one takes a centipede (mukade) to 

 this shrine, "the animal immediately dies for the following reason. 

 In olden times, when Fujiwara no Hidesato (who lived in the 

 first half of the tenth century) crossed the bridge, a big serpent 

 lay across it. The hero, however, was not at all afraid, and 

 calmly stepped over the monster which at once disappeared into 

 the water and returned in the shape of a beautiful woman. Two 

 thousand years, she said, she had lived under this bridge, bat 

 never had she seen sueh a brave man as he. For this reason 

 she requested him to destroy her enemy, a huge centipede ', 

 which had killed her sons and grandsons. Hidesato promised 

 her to do so and, armed with a bow and arrows, awaited the 

 centipede on the bridge. There came from the top of Mikami 

 yama two enormous lights, as big as the light of two hundred 

 torches. These were the centipede's eyes, and Hidesato sent three 

 arrows in that direction, whereupon the lights were extinguished 



1 Ch. I, K.T.K. Vol. XIV, p. 642. 



2 ^ iH' , Kansliin. 



3 The te.\t says only : "he went to the Dragon-palace", but the commentatoi' explains 

 the reason why he did this. 



^ 2k ifl '15 ^ ife^ ^ ' written in 1711 by the Buddhist priest Kovo, j^ ^; 

 Ch. I, nr 16, p. 29. 



7 The centipede is, according to Chinese belief, the snake's deadly enemy, whose 

 ability in killing snakes is so great, that it is considered to be an excellent charm 

 against them, and used in order to cure diseases caused by Aw-sorcery. Cf. De Groot, 

 Religious System of China, Vol. V, pp. 863 seqq. 



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