222 



and lie gave him a bottle of ink-stone water (used for wetting 

 the suzuri). The priest took it and went away rejoiced, declaring 

 that he now would mount to the sky. Actually a few days later 

 a violent thunderstorm suddenly broke forth, accompanied by 

 heavy rains and wind. When it abated, the trees and the grass 

 had become quite black. The samurai alone knew the reason 

 thereof: it was the ink- water which he had given to the priest, 

 who had used this in rising to the clouds. The author of the 

 Miyakawasha mampitsu ' heard this tale from the samurai's son, 

 to whom his father had told it. 



In 1744 a tidal wave which destroyed a little Shinto shrine 

 near Yedo bay, as well as several houses and trees in Tedo, 

 killing a large number of people, was ascribed to a dragon ^. 



Another tatsumaki happened in the Temmei era (1781 — 1788), 

 when a dragon arose from the famous Shinobazu pond in Ueno 

 (Tedo). A black cloud arose from the pond and destroyed the 

 houses in the vicinity. This is stated by Ogawa Kendo ' in his 

 Jinchodan *, who adds that such a dragon often ascends on 

 summer days in the seas of Sado, Echigo and Etchu provinces. 

 "Then there descends", he says, "a black cloud from the sky, 

 and the water of the sea, as a reversed waterfall, rises whirling 

 about and joins the cloud. Tradition says that a dragon passes 

 from the water into the cloud ... On considering the fact that 

 a dragon rose from the Shinobazu pond we arrive at the con- 

 clusion that dragons lie at the bottom even of small ponds and 

 that the water, according to the weather, rises and a cloud 

 comes down, so that heaven and earth come into connection 

 and the dragon can ascend to the sky". 



§ 3. Tatsumaki on the sea. 



In 1796 four fisherboats sank and the crews all perished when 

 -pursuing a whale in the sea near Kashima no ura in Hitachi 

 province. They were caught by a "dragon's roll" which all of a 



^ ^ ill '^ M ^' ^""^" '" ^^^^ ^y MlYAKAWA SeIUN, ^ j|| i|l^ j|| ; 



Cli. V, p. 13. 



2 Mado no siisami, ^^ ^ ^S 4h ^fe, "written by Matsuzaki Gyoshin, i^ 

 (Jf^ ^ g (1681—1753), Onchi sosho, Vol. VII, p.. 130. 



3 ^h )\\ m M:- 



4 ^ ^ ^, written in 1814; Onchi sosho, Vol. IX, p. 12. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



