214 



notorious in this respect '. Besides tanuki-bi, kitsune-bi (badger 

 and fox-fire) and oni-bi, the ignes fatui were called inkwa ( (^ ^ , 

 or Yin-fire, Fire of Darkness), kumo no hi (^ J ^, spider-fire), 

 haigetsu nohi{'}^ ^ J ^ , sea-moon-flre ^ susvke ando ( ^ ^ '^ , 

 sooty lantern) ^ or b5zu-bi (Jtjjf ^ ])^, monk's fire)*. 



Not- always, however, are demons ^ or old animals, or dragons 

 believed to cause the Jack-o'-lanterns, nor are these only con- 

 sidered to be angry souls of the dead °, for also Buddhas and 

 Shinto gods may. be the producers of these wonderful " bwari-bi^\ 

 or "dangling lights". Amida Nyorai himself, as we have seen 

 above ', appeared with the dragon-lantern on Ishidozan, and the 

 name Butsu-td ('^ j]^), or "Buddha's lights", is sufiicient evidence 

 of this belief. As to the Shinto gods, we may mention the ignes 

 fatui near Gofaku village in Etchu, which were said to be caused 

 by the jealous spirit of the goddess Fukura-hime no Mikoto, 

 whose consort, the , god Noto-hiko, during her absence took a 

 second wife, whereupon she pelted his temple with stones ^. And 

 in the year 1770 the god Sanno made a sacred light (jji^i)^, 

 sUnto) appear in the dead of night in the worshipping-hall of 

 his temple in Sebamachi, at the western mouth of the Nami- 

 kawa; after two nights he stopped it in consequence of offerings 

 made to him and hagura dances performed in his honour ^ 



So we see that there is a great variety of ignes fatui in Japan. 

 The dragon-lantern, however, is the only one which arises from 

 the sea and flies to the mountains; all the others start and 

 remain in the woods, or fly from there to the sea coast, where 

 they sometimes fall into the water '°. The reason for this diffe- 

 rence is clear: the dragon-lantern is believed to be an offering 

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

 Bodhisattvas in the mountains, while the other lights, on the con- 

 trary, are ascribed to these divine beings themselves, or to demons, 

 animals or spirits of the dead, all of which have their abodes in 

 the mountains and woods or on the grassy plains of the battle-fields. 



1 Cf. ray treatise on "The Fox and the Badger in Japanese Folklore, Transactions 

 of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XXXVI, Part. Ill, pp. 151 seq., 156. 



2 Sanshu kidan kohen, Ch. VI, pp. 955 seq. 



3 Ibidem. 4 Sanshu kidan, Ch. Ill, p. 752. 



5 Mami, ^§ ffijc, cf. Sanshu, kidan, Ch. Ill, p. 770. 



6 Sanshu kidan, Ch. I, p. 664; Cli. V, p. 840. _ 7_P. 212. 



8 Sanshu kidan, Ch. V, p. 840. 9 Sanshu kidan kohen, Ch. VIII, p. 1001. 



10 Cf. Sanshu kidan kohen, Ch. VI, p. 956: a fisher catches them in his net, but 

 the numberles small lights escape through the mazes, fly up, and join into one massive 

 ball of fire which soars away through the air; perhaps, says the author, was it a 

 transformation of old blood. 



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