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Mizuchi, Midzuchi (蛟) is a type of Japanese dragon or legendary serpent-like creature, either found in aquatic habitat or otherwise connected to water. Some commentators perceived it to have been a water deity. It is described in the ancient chronicle Nihon Shoki, and one Manyoshu poem.
Contents
- Folklorist study on mizuchi
- Name for kappa
- Mizuchi as synonym for Chinese dragon names
- In popular culture
- References
Mizuchi is also the Japanese transliteration for several types of Chinese dragons (Shinmura 1976, Kojien dictionary, 2nd. ed.), and may refer to the jiaolong (蛟; Japanese: kōryū) or "4-legged dragon", the qiulong (虬 or虯; Japanese: kyūryū) or "hornless dragon", and the chilong (螭; Japanese: chiryū) or "yellow dragon".
Daniels (1960:157) notes that rain-controlling Japanese snake deities are sometimes called dragons, but cautions that for okami and mizuchi, "it is unsafe to deduce their forms from the Chinese characters allotted to them".
Folklorist study on mizuchi
Minakata Kumagusu, in the opening section of his Jūnishi kō: mi(hebi) (『十二支考・蛇』, "A Study of Twelve Animals of Chinese Zodiac: Snake") states "Even in our country (Japan), the various snakes that dwelled by water and were feared by people seemed to have been called mizuchi, or 'master of the water'" (Minakata 1917. Minakata mizuchi's suffix -chi signifies nushi, i.e., "den-master" of lakes, etc., a re-interpretation of the view by historian Motoori Norinaga that -chi signified an honorific (Minakata 1916).
To be precise Motoori (Kojiki-den, 1822) stated that the "-chi" root was a tatae-na (讃え名, "name of reverence"), and that it occurred in the name of the great serpent Yamata no Orochi, as well as in the names of the serpent's victims named Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi.
Minakata was also tempted to regard the stem tsuchi and chi as meaning "serpent", including the example of the snake native to Japan named "akakagachi, i.e., yamakagashi)(Minakata 1916, "Dragon"). Whereas Minakata's acquaintance and celebrated folklorist Kunio Yanagita had a sublimated view of the word tsuchi, and saw it as meaning a "spirit" (Minakata 1916 and Yanagita 2004, 32;573).
Name for kappa
Minakata also collected variants that sounded like mizuchi in local dialects, such as mizushi (Ishikawa prefecture), medochi (Iwate prefecture), mintsuchi (Hokkaido). Elsewhere, Asakawa Zenan (Essay, vol. 1, 1850) mentions medochi (Ehime prefecture) and mizushi (Fukui prefecture). However these all turned out to be local names for the kappa or "water imp". Minakata observed however that the kappa legend started out as tales of the nushi (den-masters of water) transforming into human-like forms and causing harm to humans, but that these origins had become forgotten. Folklorists such as Yanagita and Junichiro Ishikawa inherit a similar view.
Minakata in this work has also collected local lore around Japan regarding aquatic snakes capable of killing humans. And he has made connection between these snakes and the lore around the kappa which has the reputation of extracting the shirikodama or a fabulous organ belonging to the human victim that the kappa is capable of yanking out through the anus. This connection seems to serve his conviction that the mizuchi though in later times identified with the kappa, originally referred to aquatic snakes.
Mizuchi as synonym for Chinese dragon names
Japanese scholars up to the Edo Period relied heavily on classical Chinese encyclopedic texts and natural history treatises. One extensively used reference is the Honzō Kōmoku or in Chinese Bencao Gangmu aka Compendium of Materia Medica (本草綱目), which mentions the "jialong dragon" as follows:
蛟龍【釋名】時珍曰︰按︰任 《述異記》雲︰蛟乃龍屬龍；有翼，曰應龍；有角，曰虯龍；無角，曰螭龍也。(Li Shizhen, 1596, Chapter:Scales (part 1)) Li Shizhen: The book Shuyi Ji by Ren Fang: The Jiao is a kind of dragon. As its eyebrows cross each other, it is called Jailong. The Jiao is a kind of dragon. As its eyebrows cross each other, it is called Jialong. (Jiao ≅ come across). The Jialong has scales. The variety with wings is called Yinglong. The variety with horns is called Qiulong. The variety without horns is called Chilong ... (tr. Luo Xiwen 2003, p.3508)When this purely Chinese text is "read as Japanese" using what is called kanbun kundoku (ja:漢文訓読), this will be read "The mizuchi is a kind of dragon.." This is because the character 蛟 (jiao) can be read as "mizuchi" when read Japanese style (kun) reading.
Other Chinese dragon names such as qiulong (虬 or 虯; Ja: kyū; pinyin: qiú) and chilong (螭; Ja: chi; pinyin: chī) can also be read mizuchi in Japanese.