Japanese Dragon

The Overland Monthly, Volume 13

 The word dragon stands for a genus of which there are several species and varieties To describe them in full and to recount minutely the ideas held by the Japanese rustics concerning them would be to compile an octavo work on dragonology The merest tyro in Japanese art indeed anyone who has seen the cheap curios of the country must have been impressed with the great number of these colossal wrigglers on everything Japanese In the country itself the monster is well nigh omnipresent In the carvings on tombs temples dwellings and shops on the government documents printed on the old and the new paper money and stamped on the new coins in pictures and books on musical instruments in high relief on bronzes and cut in stone metal and wood the dragon tatsu everywhere swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail whisks his long mustaches or glares with his terrible eyes We shall attempt no detailed description of the Japanese dragon presuming that most of our readers are already familiar with its appearance on works of art

The creature looks like a winged crocodile except as to the snout which is tufted with hair and the claws which are very sharp A celebrated Japanese author in his masterpiece of Hak kenden describes the monster with dogmatic accuracy He says The dragon is a creature of a very superior order of being It has a deer's horns a horse's head eyes like those of a devil a neck like that of a snake a belly like that of a red worm scales like those of a fish claws like a hawk's paws
like a tiger's and ears like a cow's In the spring the dragon lives in heaven in the autumn in the water in the summer it travels in the clouds and takes its pleasure in winter it lives in the earth dormant It always dwells alone and never in herds

There are many kinds of dragons such as the violet the yellow the green the red the white the black and the flying dragon Some are scaly some horned some without horns When the white dragon breathes the breath of his lungs goes into the earth and turns to gold When the violet dragon spits the spittle becomes balls of pure crystal of which gems and caskets are made One kind of dragon has nine colors on his body and another can see everything within a hundred ri another has immense treasures of every sort another delights to kill human beings
The water dragon causes floods of rain when he is sick the rain has a fishy smell The fire dragon is only seven feet long but his body is of flame The dragons are all very lustful and approach beasts of every sort The fruit of a union of one of these monsters with a cow is the kirin with a swine an elephant

and with a horse a steed of the finest breed The female dragon produces at every parturition nine young The first young dragon sings and likes all harmonious sounds hence the tops of Japanese bells are cast in the form of this dragon the second delights in the sounds of musical instruments hence the koto or horizontal harp and suzumi a girl's drum struck by the fingers are ornamented with the figure of this dragon the third is fond of drinking and likes all stimulating liquors therefore goblets and drinking cups are adorned with representations of this creature the fourth likes steep and dangerous places hence gables towers the projecting beams of temples and pagodas have carved images of this dragon upon them the fifth is a great destroyer of living things fond of killing and bloodshed therefore swords are decorated with golden figures of this dragon the sixth loves learning and delights in literature hence on the covers and title pages of books and literary works are pictures of this creature the seventh renowned for its power of hearing eighth enjoys sitting hence the chairs are carved in its image the loves to bear weight therefore the of tables and oihibachi braziers to fire usually made of brass or bronze are shaped like this creature's feet the dragon is the most powerful in existence so the garments of the or mikado are called the robes his face the dragon his body the dragon and his anger the dragon wrath