Dragon Stories

The Wani deals with the sea-princess, the daughter of the Dragon King under the sea. While the Wani most likely was a form of Crocodile originally, it has changed in relation to Japanese mythology to that of a type of sea creature/dragon. In relation to the Kingdom under the sea, commonly known as “The Dragon-King’s Palace”, it was originally a village in the story that came from Indonesia, but the Buddhist influence from China adapted it to the palace over time. The sea-princess is seen in other stories within the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki as well. The Kojiki deals with the story of the sea-princess, otherwise known as Toyotama-Bime, within the 43^rd-45^th chapters. The Dragon king gives his Toyoyama-Bime’s husband two stones by which to cause the tide to flood or to ebb, these stones are talked about in length as the cause of victory in a few battles with foreign powers (Visser 142). They are given as recompense so that her husband can control his brother who had been petty and forced him to search for a lost fishing hook. Because the Dragon King gave these jewels to his daughter’s husband, the brother was appropriately punished. Toyotama-Bime and her husband were so delighted that she became pregnant and they moved above ground. The story ends on a sour note with her husband experiencing the ocular taboo of viewing something that shouldn’t be viewed and learns that his wife is actually a dragon. Toyotama-Bime is incredibly embarrassed and thus returns back to her father, Watatsumi’s, home under the sea, taking her newly born child with her. Within Ryuichi Abe’s article Revisiting the Dragon Princess: Her role in Medieval Engi Stories and their Implications in Reading the Lotus Sutra, we learn about this princess in a different light, showing that she has more meaning behind her than what is initially presented in the Kojiki. The Dragon Princess can also be seen within the Lotus Sutra and has been adapted to the Noh drama of Ama to further showcase her story (Abe). Her son, who understands that being trapped within the sea has stopped her from reaching Buddhahood, chants the lotus sutra, freeing her to attain enlightenment. She is given an interesting role of promoting the Bodhisattva and achieving enlightenment through this process since her story contributes to the fact that dragons are deities of the sea, but they are also able to reach enlightenment.

Dragons have a history of being the basis for a many Japanese stories, but usually are not the main focus. They are, like many other mythical creatures that appear in Japanese lore, usually used to explain something that naturally occurs but is difficult to explain. This is the nature of most gods in any culture; while explanations for these phenomena have become more realistic over time, stories about gods and supernatural creatures are still interesting today. The Nihongi includes a description of the origin of a place name associated with dragons. One of the places that the wind gods and rain gods were located was at Tatusta, translated as “Dragonfield”, showing that the influence of Chinese and Korean dragons reaches back very far into Japanese history (Visser 152). There are also numerous accounts of Dragon-women appearing near ponds in Japanese lore, relating to floods when they are angry and preventing droughts when they are contented. If people mistreat the pond or river then they are generally angry at the surrounding town/ townspeople. These stories tend to end with prayer to the dragon deity in the hope that they will be merciful to the town around them and not wreck their wrath upon them (Visser 171-174).

There are accounts in both Chinese and Japanese lore of the story of a Koi fish turning into a dragon. The Chinese version of the story has them swimming up river in the Yellow River in China, pushing their way past their brethren. If they succeed in doing so, achieving such a great feat against the odds, these koi fish would be granted a god-like comeuppance of turning into a dragon. This showed the great strength it takes to do this and became an effervescent goal of all koi, and a symbol “for overcoming life’s difficulties and achieving ultimate success” (Brazil). The characteristics of dragons in folklore and mythology are also fascinations in contemporary culture, and thus are adapted to modern needs, as seen in movies, tv shows, and festivals.