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Japanese dragon

Serpentine creature in Japanese mythology

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Through Japan, China and Korea

Lab · Class 6–12Archaeology & Discovery

Indigenous Japanese dragons

The c. 680 AD Kojiki and the c. 720 AD Nihongi mytho-histories have the first Japanese textual references to dragons. "In the oldest annals the dragons are mentioned in various ways," explains de Visser, "but mostly as water-gods, serpent- or dragon-shaped." The Kojiki and Nihongi mention several ancient dragons:

  • Yamata no Orochi (八岐大蛇; lit. 'eight-branched giant snake') was an eight-headed and eight-tailed dragon slain by the god of wind Susanoo, who discovered the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (legendary sword of the Imperial Regalia of Japan) in one of its tails.
  • Watatsumi (海神; lit. 'sea god') or Ryūjin (龍神; lit. 'dragon god') was the ruler of seas and oceans, and described as a dragon capable of changing into human form. He lived in the undersea Ryūgū-jō (龍宮城; lit. 'dragon palace castle'), where he kept the magical tide jewels.
  • Toyotama-hime (豊玉姫; lit. 'Luminous Pearl Princess') was Ryūjin's daughter. She purportedly was an ancestress of Emperor Jimmu, Japan's legendary first emperor.
  • Wani (鰐) was a sea monster that is translated as both "shark" and "crocodile". Kuma-wani (熊鰐; 'bear (i.e., giant or strong) shark/crocodile') are mentioned in two ancient legends. One says the sea god Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami transformed into an "8-fathom kuma-wani" and fathered Toyotama-hime, the other says a kuma-wani piloted the ships of Emperor Chūai and his Empress Jingū.
  • Mizuchi (蛟 or 虯) was a river dragon and water deity. The Nihongi records legendary Emperor Nintoku offering human sacrifices to mizuchi angered by his river engineering projects.
  • Raijū is Raijin's animal companion and messenger that commonly take form of a dragon, qilin or komainu.
  • Kiyohime (清姫; lit. 'Purity Princess') was a teahouse waitress who fell in love with a young Buddhist priest. After he spurned her, she studied magic, transformed into a dragon, and killed him.
  • Nure-onna (濡女; lit. 'Wet Woman') was a dragon with a woman's head and a snake's body. She was typically seen while washing her hair on a riverbank and would sometimes kill humans when angered.
  • Zennyo Ryūō (善如龍王; lit. 'goodness-like dragon king') was a rain-god depicted either as a dragon with a snake on its head or as a human with a snake's tail.
  • In the fairy tale "My Lord Bag of Rice", the Ryūō "dragon king" of Lake Biwa asks the hero Tawara Tōda (田原藤太) to kill a giant centipede.
  • Urashima Tarō rescued a turtle which took him to Ryūgū-jō and turned into the attractive daughter of the ocean god Ryūjin.

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