Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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]
A Japanese chimera with the features of the beasts from the Chinese Zodiac: a rat's head, rabbit ears, ox horns, a horse's mane, a rooster's comb, a sheep's beard, a dragon's neck, a back like that of a boar, a tiger's shoulders and belly, monkey arms, a dog's hindquarters, and a snake's tail.
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 ...
A water dragon youkai in Japanese mythology. Tatsu: Dragon of Japanese mythology, and the master of the water, like the Ryu. Orochi: the eight-headed serpent slain by Susanoo in Japanese mythology. Kuraokami: A Japanese dragon and a deity of rain and snow. Ryū: Similar to Chinese dragons, with three claws instead of four. They are usually ...
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.
Hoori went searching to the bottom of the sea, where he met and married Toyotama-hime, the daughter of the dragon Sea God. After living three years in the undersea Ryūgū-jō 竜宮城 "dragon palace castle", Ryūjin presented Hoori with his brother's fishhook and the tide jewels, and arranged for him to take his sea-dragon bride back to land.
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".
A priest named Mankan (Japanese: 万巻上人) cursed the dragon, and is said to have chained it to the Upside-down Cedar (an underwater rock formation). As a result of this legend, the dragon came to be worshipped as Kuzuryū Daimyōjin (九頭竜大明神, "Great God Nine-Headed Dragon). The expression "send up a white-feathered arrow" has ...