CHAPTER VIII. 



THE TATSUMAKI (^|^), OR "DRAGOn's ROLl". 



The works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries explain 

 the heavy whirlwinds which cause the so-called water-spouts 

 and in, a moment destroy the products of human hands' or 

 whatever they may light upon, to be the work of dragons ascen- 

 ding to heaven. Accordingly the enormous columns of water, 

 thrown up into the air by these whirlwinds, are called ."tatsu- 

 makV or "dragon's rolls". 



§ i. Dragons wMch ascended to heaven. 



Apart from the tatsumaki we may refer to two passages in 

 the Tuhd meisho ryaku (1697) where dragons are said to"" have 

 a,scended to the sky. The first passage ' treats of the name of 

 Tatsuta, the place where the. Wind-god was worshipped from 

 times immemorial^, which name it ascribes to the fact that a 

 dragon arose to heaven there; It was the Thunder-god .himself, 

 who in thie shape of a boy had fallen down on Tatsuta yama 

 (Higuri district, Yamato province), thirty or forty cho south-west 

 from Nara. A peasant adopted the child and educated it, and 

 from that time wind and rain were very favourable to that 

 special village. Afterwards the child changed into a dragon and 

 flew to the sky. 



The second passage ' explains the name of Sennin-zuka, ( fjl] 

 J^^, or "sien's grave") in Narumi village, Aichi district, 

 Owari province, to be the spot where in remote ages a Chinese 

 sien (sennm), . who floating on a tree had arrived on this shore, 

 lived for a long time till he finally became a dragon and rose 

 to heaven. His soul was worshipped in the "Heavenly Dragon's 

 shrine" (jTenryii no miya, 3^^^), erected close to the spot 

 where he had lived. 



4 Ch. Ill, p. 1-5. 2 Cf. above, Book II, Ch. Ill, § 4, p. 153. 



3 Ch. VIII, p. 47. 



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