223 



sudden covered the sky with dark clouds and made the surface 

 of the sea quite black '. 



In the Shosan chomon kishu ^ a sea-otter which rose up from 

 the sea into a black cloud and ascended to the sky, is said to 

 have done so in the same way as the "dragon-snakes" use to 

 fly to heaven. The incident is described as follows. In a clear 

 sky suddenly a black cloud appeared which in -a moment covered 

 the sea. A heavy storm stirred up the waves and raised the sand, 

 the rain fell down in torrents and the mountains shook. A hunter 

 saw a mysterious creature rise from the sea into the cloud and 

 fly to the sky. At once with a thundering noise the cloud came 

 straight in the hunter's direction, and he saw a dazzling light 

 in the middle of it. When he hit the cloud with a bullet, it 

 was dissolved, the rain stopped and the storm abated. A few 

 days later a big sea-otter was found dying on the shore, with 

 the bullet in its eye. 



On the next page the author quotes the Koji inenshu ^ which 

 states that in the sea of Iwami fishes ascend to the sky and 

 become "fish-dragons" ( J| ^1)? ^^^ ^^ '^ ^ote we find the remark 

 that "there, are several thousands of dragons, messengers of the 

 divine sennin (^^^[11), and among these are 'fish-dragons' and 



'otter-dragons' (|JJ ^, datsu-ryu), which can assume all kinds 

 of shapes" *. 



A curious way of driving away a tatsumaki is described in 

 the Yuhisai sakki^. A dark cloud came down upon a vessel sailing 

 from Tedo in a western direction, and the sailors were afraid 



1 Hiloyo-hdnashi, "Tales of one night", -written in 1810 by Maki Bokusen, i^ 

 g -^ ; Ch. II, p. 9. 



2 Ch. II, p. 460; concerning this work of. above p. 218, note 3. 



^ iScfi^ ^ Wi ^' ^y ^" unknown author; probably a work of the tokugawa 

 period. 



4 A "dog-dragon" (^6l a^)' ^ ^'""^ °^ '^°'^' which, living under the ground, 

 haunted houses and devoured old women, is spoken of in the Sanshu kidan (Ch. II, 

 pp. 732 seqq., cf. Ti'ansactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XXXVII, Part I, 

 p. 32); and "gold-dragons" (;^ ^) were, together with "spiritual foxes" (^ ^) 

 shown to the public by a sorcerer in Kyoto {Sanshu kidan, Ch. IV, p. 821).. In Ch. 

 Ill (p. 517) of the Shosan chomon ItishU we read that big snakes (especially the so- 

 called senja, ^A^*^, ov uwabami), and also small snakes, are a kind of dragons 

 which cause rain and wind and ascend to the sky. Snakes all belong to the species dragon. 



5 TS" II ^ ^IJIE' written by Minagawa Kien, ^ j\\ y^ ^, who lived 

 1733-1807; quoted in the Toyuki, ]^ j^ |E' written in 1795 by Tachiban A Nan kei 

 Mi"^ M; Kohen, 1^ |j| , Ch. Ill, Zoku,Teikoku Bunko, Vol. XX, p. 129. 



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