CHAPTER VI. 



THE DRAGON-LANTERN. 



Among the many igms fatui of Japan the Dragon-lantern 

 {Byuto, fl jl^) occupies an important place. It mostly rises 

 from the sea and flies from there to the mountains, where it is 

 seen hanging in some special old pine or cryptomeria tree before 

 a (mostly Buddhist) temple. Old pine trees especially are famous 

 in respect to these mysterious lights, which are evidently offerings 

 sent by the dragons of the sea to the deities or Buddhas or 

 Bodhisattvas worshipped in the shrines. There is an enormous 

 number of legends telling of the Dragon-lanterns appearing along 

 the mountainous coasts of Japan. In order to make clear the 

 people's ideas on this point, however, it may be sufficient to 

 refer to a few passages, because they closely resemble one 

 another, and the same conceptions lie at the bottom of them all. 



The old annals do not speak of the Dragon-lantern, nor do 

 we find any mention made of it in other books before the 

 fourteenth century. 



§ 1. Dengyo Daishi's image of Yakushi Ifyorai. 



The Kigegawa Yakushi engi^ says the following: "The image 

 of Yakushi Nyorai in Jokwoji (also called Shoryuzan, ^ f | iJj , 

 "Blue Dragon monastery"), in Katsushika district, Shimosa 

 province, is made by Dengyo Daishi I When Jikaku Daishi ^ 

 stayed in Asakusa-dera (the famous Kwannon temple in Asakusa, 

 the well-known district of Yedo), an old man with grey hair 

 appeared to him and said: 'In the North-east there is a holy 



i tI^ ~K jll ^ ^i0 M^' written in 1327 by the Buddhist priest GiJUN. 

 ^ ^ , Gunslio ruiju, Vol. XV, nr 442, p. 637. 



^ '^ ^ ~^ ^^ (767—822), the founder of the Tendai sect in Japan. 

 3 ^ &■ ~hr' fijfi (794 — 864), in 854 appointed head (zasu) of the Tendai sect. 



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