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Chinese dragon mythology is the source of Japanese dragon mythology. Japanese words for "dragon" are written with kanji ("Chinese characters"), either simplified shinjitai 竜 or traditional kyūjitai 龍 from Chinese long 龍. These kanji can be read tatsu in native Japanese kun'yomi, [b] and ryū or ryō in Sino-Japanese on'yomi. [c]
Ryūjin shinkō (竜神信仰, "dragon god faith") is a form of Shinto religious belief that worships dragons as water kami. It is connected with agricultural rituals, rain prayers, and the success of fishermen. The god has shrines across Japan and especially in rural areas where fishing and rains for agriculture are important for local ...
Mizuchi is also the Japanese transliteration for several Chinese glyphs, [3] each glyph putatively representing a type of Chinese dragon: namely the jiāolóng (蛟竜; Japanese: kōryū) or "4-legged dragon", the qiúlóng (虬竜 or 虯竜; Japanese: kyūryū) or "hornless dragon" and the chīlóng (螭竜; Japanese: chiryū) or "yellow dragon".
He is a dragon, as well as god of the sea. [9] Suijin (水神) The god of water. Susanoo-no-Mikoto (須佐之男命 or 素戔嗚尊) is a god of storms, as well as the ruler of the sea in some cases. He is also somewhat of a trickster god, as Japanese mythology extensively documents the "sibling rivalry" between him and Amaterasu
Painting of a Japanese dragon by Hokusai (c. 1730 – 1849) Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China. Like some other dragons, most Japanese dragons are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed ...
The Chinese character components for taito are both compound ideographs created by reduplicating a common character, namely the 12-stroke Japanese kumo or Chinese yún 雲 "cloud" (with the "rain radical" 雨 and un or yún 云 phonetic), and the 16-stroke "dragon radical" Japanese ryū or Chinese lóng 龍.
Two other Japanese examples derive from Buddhist importations of Indian dragon myths. Benzaiten, the Japanese form of Saraswati, supposedly killed a five-headed dragon at Enoshima in 552. Kuzuryū (九頭龍, "nine-headed dragon"), deriving from the nagarajas (snake-kings) Vasuki and Shesha, is worshipped at Togakushi Shrine in Nagano Prefecture.
The name Kuraokami combines kura 闇 "dark; darkness; closed" and okami 龗 "dragon tutelary of water". This uncommon kanji (o)kami or rei 龗, borrowed from the Chinese character ling 龗 "rain-dragon; mysterious" (written with the "rain" radical 雨, 3 口 "mouths", and a phonetic of long 龍 "dragon") is a variant Chinese character for Japanese rei < Chinese ling 靈 "rain-prayer ...