221 



The Wakan sansai zue (1713)' describes how on lake Biwa a 

 man saw a little snake, about one shaku long, which came 

 swimming to the shore, climbed upon the water-rushes, danced 

 about, came down again and swam about on the surface of the 

 water, whereupon it several times repeated the same movements. 

 Gradually the snake became longer and longer, till it reached 

 the length of about one jo (10 shaku); then it ascended to the 

 sky, which in the meantime was covered with black clouds. It 

 became pitchdark, so that only the dragon's tail was visible, 

 and a shower of rain fell down till the dragon had entered the 

 sky, which then became as clear as before. "The climbing upon 

 the rushes and dancing about", says the author, "was probably a 

 preparatory exercise for ascending to , heaven". 



§ 2. Tatsumaki in Yedo ^. 



The Ichiwa ichigen ^ makes mention of a tatsumaki which in 

 1735 arose in the vicinity of the Detached Palace in Shiba 

 district, in the Yedo bay, and destroyed the roofs of many houses 

 in Kyobashi and Nihonbashi districts; at the same time a heavy 

 rain came down and it became pitch-dark. 



In the Kwansei era (1789 — 1800) there was in Yedo a Buddhist 

 priest who went about and predicted that soon a dragon was 

 to ascend, to heaven in a heavy tempest, reason why he advised 

 the people to stay indoors. When a samurai asked him how he 

 knew this beforehand, the priest answered: ''I know this from 

 experience. Always when the sky has been clear for a long time 

 and it suddenly begins to rain, as is now the case, a dragon 

 ascends". "Are you perhaps the dragon yourself?" asked the 

 samurai, and when the priest answered in the affirmative, he 

 requested him to rise to the sky at once. "I cannot do so", 

 replied the bonze, "because I have no water". "No water?" 

 exclaimed the other, "there is plenty of water in the river' near 

 by!" "That is of no use to me", remarked the priest, '^for that 

 is flowing water and what I want is heavenly water, (rain)". 

 "WeU, then I will give you some rainwater", said the samurai. 



1 Ch. XLV (f|4'g^).P-^73. ,;;, .:;. 



2 1 use the old way of transcribing this name instead' of "Ecio", because the name 

 of Yedo has become familiar to all readers of the older works on Japan. . 



3 — i3& — ■#' written by Uta Nampo, -j^ ffl .^ fflX (^t*^-^^^^)' ^'^■ 



XL, p. 41. 



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