. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
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Raijin 雷神と伝説 Legends about the God of Thunder and Lightning
- Raijin 雷神 / ライジン God of Thunder and Fujin 風神 God of Storm
August 14, 2019
. 超大型 super large typhoon Krosa is coming our way .
September 19, 2019
. 大型 large typhoon Tapah is coming our way .
October 06, 2019
. 猛烈な extremely strong typhoon Hagibis is coming our way .
. kaminari, rai 雷 thunder and lightning .
The word kaminari seems to be derived from the meaning:
the gods are sounding, kami ga naru 神が鳴る.
. Fuujin 風神 Fujin - Kaze no Kami 風の神 Wind God Legends .
. kaminari 雷と伝説 Legends about Thunder and Lightning .
. taifū 台風 と 伝説 Typhoon legends - Taifun Legenden .
- Introduction -
raiden 雷電 = かみなりといなびかり 雷鳴 kaminari (raimei) and 電光 inabikari - thunder and lightning.
There are many legends about
. heso 臍と伝説 Legends about the navel and Raijin .
from Ibaragi 茨城県 / Kagawa 香川県 / Nara 奈良県 / Shiga 滋賀県 / Wakayama 和歌山県 / Yamaguchi 山口県
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The passage of Raijin as thunder and lightning is often quite predictable. Strikes of lightning and damage are often along the same path and in many regions the Deity is therefore venerated in a Shrine along this path, called
Raiden Jinja 雷電神社.
Raiden Shrine at Itakura (板倉町) Gunma
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okami 龗 オカミ Okami
A deity that reigns over rain, snow and water. Maybe identical with ryuujin 竜神 Ryujin, the Dragon Deity.
In the old records 豊後風土記 Bungo no Fudoki they mention that OKAMI makes hail and thunder fall on the earth.
To drive it away people have to use something to make a rattling sound.
In 山国 a mountainous country they had a ritual named 雷狩 "hunting for thunder". When performing this, the thunder could be driven out of the area.
The sound of thunder was equal with the idea of raijin 雷神 the God of Thunder.
OKAMI would handle the clouds.
With the rattling sound of the ritual, both could be driven away.
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雷神研究 / 郷土趣味
努賀媛 Princess Nugahime
. The serpent and thunder (lightning) are the same .
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- - - - - Paintings of Raijin 雷神の描かれ方 - - - - -
敦煌壁画 the wall paintings in Tonko / Dunhuang, China
北野天神絵巻 Kita no Tenmangu Picture scroll
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- - - - - ABC List of the prefectures :
......................................................................................... Aichi 愛知県
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知多郡 Chita district 美浜町 Mihama
. kaminari matsu 雷松 "pine of thunder" .
......................................................................................... Fukushima 福島県
raijinkoo 雷神皇 "Emperor Raijin"
In 楢葉郡浅川 the hamlet Asakawa of Nahara district the villagers always come to pray at the shrine 雷神宮 Ikazuchi no Miya (Raijin no Miya).
Once in Spring, a couple went out to their fields to work and placed a cradle with their baby on the side. There came a large wolf with white hair and wanted to eat the baby.
In that instant there was a stroke of lightning and killed the wolf. This was the way of the deity to show its gratitude.
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The place for getting rain water for the fields is sacred.
The 6th day of the 5th lunar month is called
Raijin Sama no Hi 雷神様の日 day of the venerable Thunder god.
On this day farmers are not allowed to go work in the fields.
......................................................................................... Gunma 群馬県
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佐波郡 Sawa district
. nawa no goshinji ナワノゴシンジ "Ritual of the rope" .
at 角折神社 Tsunoori Jinja (Tsuno-ori) "Shrine of the Broken Horn" of the Demon
......................................................................................... Hyogo 兵庫県
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神戸市 Kobe city
. Raijin and Yakushi Nyorai 雷神と薬師様 .
......................................................................................... Ibaragi 茨城県
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石岡市 Ishioka city
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勝田市 Katsuta city
. amagoi 雨乞いと伝説 Legends about rain rituals .
In the third lunar month, farmers come to pray to the Thunder Deity at Mito, to get an amulet for rain and a good harvest.
Strong men from the village run to the Shrine, receive bamboo poles filled with water and bring them to the village. The water is spread to the fields and soon it will rain . . . they say.
......................................................................................... Iwate 岩手県
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花巻市 Hanamaki city
When lightning strikes a home, they go to the small shrine to pray to 雷神様 Raijin Sama.
In いわき地方 the Iwaki region they place four green bamboo poles with ritual paper slips. If they do not do this, 雷様 Rai Sama will not go back to the sky but will stay on and devastate the fields. If they put up bamboo poles, he can use them to go back to the sky.
......................................................................................... Kanagawa 神奈川県
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相模原市 Sagamihara city 緑区 Midori ward
. Rai Sama and the bakeneko 化猫 monster cat .
......................................................................................... Kyoto 京都府
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船井郡 Funai district
Once a dead body had disappeared when the thunder was howling. Then this happened many more times.
When the priest of the temple 圓通寺／円通寺 Entsu-Ji begun to hold proper funeral rituals for the people,
this stopped.
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source : chanto.jp.net...
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......................................................................................... Mie 三重県
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津田村 Tsuda mura village
Once upon a time, the god of lightning fell into ido 井戸 the well of a farmhouse. The couple living there shut it down with a lit and did not let him go back to heaven.
Raijin does not like kuwa 桑 mulberries, so he promised not to come down to earth if they recited kuwahara kuwabara 桑原桑原 field of mulberries.
Then they let him go back to heaven.
. Temple Saifujkji 西福寺 at Kuwabara, Osaka .
the Sanskrit spell word to protect from lightning is kuwanbara クワンバラ
. kuwa 桑 mulberry and silk .
......................................................................................... Nara 奈良県
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生駒郡 Ikoma district 三郷町 Sango town
. ryuu, ryū 龍 竜 伝説 Ryu - dragon legends .
Once 雷神 Raijin fell down from the sky when he was a small child and a local farmer couple took him in as their child.
From then on their fields always had enough rain, even in a kanbatsu 旱魃 drought all around them.
A while later the child became a dragon and moved into the sky.
Since then the field was called tatsuta 竜田 and Tatsuta became the name of the area too.
......................................................................................... Niigata 新潟県
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新津市 Niitsu city
Near the kaminari sugi 雷杉 thunder cedar at the Shrine 大将軍神社 Daishogun Jinja, there was once a very noisy sound of thunder, so they captured Raijin and scolded him.
He had to promise not to sound any more, then they let him free.
But it seems recently he broke this promise and people can hear thunder again.
......................................................................................... Osaka 大阪府
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和泉市 Izumi city
Once there was a region troubled by a lot of lightning.
One day a brave young man saw the lightning fall into a well and took a large stone to cover the well.
Now 雷神 Raijin was in confinement.
The young man made Raijin promise never to come to this region again, then he let him go.
Since then there have not been any strikes of lightning in this area.
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泉南郡 Sennan district 岬町 Misaki town
kaminari no manako 雷の眼 The eyes of the Thunder Deity
Once there was a region troubled by a lot of lightning.
One day the deity 住吉明神 Sumiyoshi Myojin picked out the eyes of 雷神 Raijin and then let him go.
Since then there have not been any strikes of lightning in this area.
......................................................................................... Shiga 滋賀県
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伊香郡 Ina district 余呉町 Yogo town
Once a woodcutter helped helped 雷神 Raijin to climb back to the sky.
Then the man remembered that his village was often suffering from water shortage. Therefore he called Raijin.
And Raijin came back to the village and became a lake.
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Shiga 大津市 Otsu city
In the year 1717, a was rakurai 落雷 a stroke of lightning at the home of a family in Otsu.
It came with a fragrant smell of jakoo 麝香 musk and left a piece of string like a navel. Since the smell was so good, it was used to make raifun medicine 雷糞 "like the poop of the Thunder god".
......................................................................................... Tochigi 栃木県
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小山市 Oyama city
raiden sama 雷電様 honorable Thunder deity
The family of 茂呂定夫 Moro Sadao venerates 雷神様 Raijin Sama, who had come from Itakura.
Once the ancestors had visited the shrine 雷神神社 / 雷電神社 Raiden Jinja in Itakura, Gunma and asked the deity to come to their home once.
When they came back to their home, there was a strong thunder and 雷様 Rai Sama had been rolling bottles from the front door and out of the back door.
Raiden Jinja 雷電神社
群馬県邑楽郡板倉町板倉2334 / Itakura, Ora District, Gunma
Built in 598.
- HP of the Shrine
- reference source : town.itakura.gunma.jp -
......................................................................................... Tokyo 東京都
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浅草 Asakusa
. Kaminarimon 雷門 Kaminari Mon "Thunder Gate" .
浅草寺 Sensoji, Temple Senso-Ji
- quote -
“Kaminarimon” is actually not the official name of this gate. Its official, full name is Fujin Raijin mon, meaning “The Gate of the Gods of Wind and Thunder”. “Fujin” refers to “The God of Wind”, while “Raijin” means
“The God of Thunder”. The gate is popularly referred to as “Kaminarimon” because “kaminari” is the Japanese word for “thunder”.
... the lantern is 3.9 meters high, 3.3 meters wide, and weighs 700 kilograms.
- The Dragon-Shaped Engraving at the Base of the Lantern
dragons who reside in oceans are said to have power over the clouds and the rain. In the past, Asakusa was a town filled with wooden buildings, flimsy and weak to fire, packed closely together. Being a dragon that lived in water, this dragon was revered as a god that could save Asakusa from fire with its power over water. ...
- source : matcha-jp.com... -
To protect a child from the hoosoo 疱瘡 smallpox, it has to be brought to the Kaminarimon gate on the 8th day of each month and be held between the legs of the god.
Thus it will not get ill and if it does, the illness will be light.
. Asakusa Kannon densetsu 浅草観音伝説 Legends from Asakusa Kannon .
......................................................................................... Yamagata 山形県
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raijin no taiko 雷神の太鼓 the big drum of Raijin
Once a man was sucked into a wind cave on top of a mountain, taken into the sky and asked to hit the drums of Raijin.
He had a lot of fun and did too much, losing his step on the clouds and fell down to 羽黒山 Mount Hagurosan.
Many people came to see him and he told his story.
Since the drum was made of clouds, it had the power to heal all kinds of illness.
When he hit it in front of an ill person, the person would be healed.
source : kaiyodo.co.jp/k-blog...
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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
49 雷神 to explore (24)
15 雷電 raiden "thunder and lightning"
55 落雷 rakurai - lightning strike
412 雷 to collect
an essay about Naru-kami, narukami 鳴神餘響
風神雷神 雷の章
柳広司 Yanagi Koji (1967 - )
He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan.
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. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
- Yookai 妖怪 Yokai Monsters of Japan -
- Introduction -
Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769–1825)
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