A favourite theme of Japanese art, depicting the Seven Gods (or rather six Gods and one Goddess) of Good Fortune. This illustration is from a woodcut in the British Museum.
In the Ko-ji-ki two groups of eight deities are followed by “the Deity Bird’s-Rock-Camphor-Tree-Boat”, another name for this kami being “Heavenly Bird-Boat”. Then came the food-goddess, “Deity Princess-of-Great-Food”. She was followed by the fire-god, kagu-tsuchi. This deity caused the death of his mother Izanami, having burned her at birth so severely that she sickened [[353]]and “lay down”. Before she died, an interesting group of deities, making a total of eight from “Heavenly Bird-Boat” to the last named, “Luxuriant Food Princess”, came into being. From her vomit sprang “Metal-Mountain Prince” and “Metal-Mountain Princess”; from her fæces came “Clay Prince” and “Clay Princess” (earth deities); and from her urine crept forth Mitsu-ha no-Me, which Japanese commentators explain as “Female-Water-snake”, or “The Woman who produces the Water”. In the first rendering ha is regarded as meaning “snake” (dragon), and in the second as “to produce”. Neither Florenz nor De Visser can decide which explanation is correct.[20] The dragon was, of course, a water-producer, or water-controller, or a “water-confiner”, who was forced to release the waters, like the “drought demon”, slain by the Aryo-Indian god Indra, and the water-confiner of the Nile, whose blood reddened the river during inundation.
When Izanami died, the heart of Izanagi was filled with wrath and grief. Drawing his big sabre, he, according to the Ko-ji-ki, cut off the head of the fire-god; or, as the Nihon-gi tells, cut him into three pieces, each of which became a god. Other gods sprang from the pieces, from the blood drops that bespattered the rocks, the blood that clung to the upper part of the sabre, and the blood that leaked out between the fingers of Izanagi.
According to the Nihon-gi, the blood dripping from the upper part of the sword became the gods Kura-okami, Kura-yama-tsumi, and Kura-mitsu-ha. The meaning of the character kura is “dark”, and Professor Florenz explains it as “abyss, valley, cleft”,[21] and notes that okami means [[354]]“rain” and “dragon”. According to De Visser, Kura-okami is a dragon- or snake-god who controls rain and snow, and had Shinto temples “in all provinces”. Another reading in the Nihon-gi states that one of the three gods who came into being from the pieces of the fire-god’s body was Taka-okami, a name which, according to a Japanese commentator, means “the dragon-god residing on the mountains”, while Kura-okami means “the dragon-god of the valleys”.[22] The second god born from the blood drops from the upper part of the sword, Kura-yama-tsumi, is translated “Lord of the Dark Mountains”, and “Mountain-snake”; and the third, Kura-mitsu-ha, is “Dark-water-snake” or “Valley-water-snake”. According to the Ko-ji-ki, the deities Kura-okami and Kura-mitsu-ha came from the blood that leaked out between Izanagi’s fingers.
It is of interest to note here that other dragon deities to which Izanagi and Izanami gave origin, included the mizuchi or “water fathers”, which are referred to as “horned deities”, “four-legged dragons”, or “large water-snakes”. As Aston notes,[23] these “water fathers” had no individual names; they were prayed to for rain in times of drought. Another sea-dragon child of the great couple was the wani, which appears to have been a combination of crocodile and shark. Aston thinks that wani is a Korean word. De Visser, on the other hand, is of opinion that the wani is the old Japanese dragon-god or sea-god, and that the legend about the Abundant Pearl Princess (Toyo-tama-bime)[24] who had a human lover and, like Melusina, transformed herself from human shape into that of a wani (Ko-ji-ki) or a dragon (Nihon-gi), was originally a Japanese serpent-dragon, which was “dressed [[355]]in Indian garb by later generations”.[25] Florenz, the German Orientalist, thinks the legend is of Chinese origin, but a similar one is found in Indonesia. “Wani,” De Visser says, “may be an Indonesian word,” and it is possible, as he suggests, that “foreign invaders, who in prehistoric times conquered Japan, came from Indonesia and brought the myth with them.”[26]
There is a reference in the Nihon-gi (Chapter I) to a “bear-wani, eight fathoms long”, and it has been suggested that “bear” means here nothing more than “strong”.[27] The Ainu, however, as we have seen (Chapter XVII), associated bear and dragon deities; the bear-goddess was the wife of the dragon-god, and that goddess had, like the Abundant Pearl Princess, a human lover. “Bear-wani” may therefore have been a bear-dragon. There was a dragon-horse “with a long neck and wings at its sides”, which flew through the air, and did not sink when it trod upon the water,[28] and there were withal Japanese crow-dragons, toad-dragons, fish-dragons, and lizard-dragons.
The horse played as prominent a part in Japanese rain-getting and rain-stopping ceremonies as did the bear among the Ainu. White, black, or red horses were offered to bring rain, but red horses alone were sacrificed to stop rain. Like the Buriats of Siberia and the Aryo-Indians of the Vedic period, the Japanese made use of the domesticated horse at the dawn of their history. No doubt it was imported from Korea. There is evidence that at an early period human beings were sacrificed to the Japanese dragon-gods of rivers, lakes, and pools. Human sacrifices at tombs are also referred to. In the Nihon-gi, under the legendary date 2 B.C., it is related that when a [[356]]Mikado died his personal attendants were buried alive in an upright position beside his tomb.[29]
In his notable work on the dragon, M. W. de Visser[30] shows that the Chinese ideas regarding their four-legged dragon and Indian Buddhist ideas regarding nagas were introduced into Japan and fused with local ideas regarding serpent-shaped water-gods. The foreign elements added to ancient Japanese legends have, as has been indicated, made their original form obscure. In the dragon place-names of Japan, however, it is still possible to trace the locations of the ancient Shinto gods who were mostly serpent-shaped. An ancient name for a Japanese dragon is Tatsu. De Visser notes that Tatsu no Kuchi (“Dragon’s mouth”) is a common place-name. It is given to a hot spring in the Nomi district, to a waterfall in Kojimachi district, to a hill in Kamakura district, where criminals were put to death, and to mountains, &c., elsewhere. Tatsu ga hana (“Dragon’s nose”) is in Taga district; Tatsukushi (“Dragon’s skewer”) is a rock in Tosa province; and so on. Chinese and Indian dragons are in Japanese place-names “ryu” or “ryo”. These include Ryo-ga-mine (“Dragon’s peak”) in Higo; Ryu-ga-take (“Dragon’s peak”) in Ise; Ryu-kan-gawa (“Dragon’s rest river”) in Tokyo, &c.
The worship of the Water Fathers or Dragons in Japan was necessary so as to ensure the food-supply. [[357]]