Japanese Dragon

Japanese Dragon

Japanese dragons (日本の竜 Nihon no ryū) are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. The style of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. The modern Japanese language has numerous "dragon" words, including indigenous tatsu from Old Japanese ta-tu, Sino-Japanese ryū or ryō 竜 from Chinese lóng 龍, nāga ナーガ from Sanskrit nāga, and doragon ドラゴン from English dragon.

Read more about Japanese Dragon:  Indigenous Japanese Dragons, Sino-Japanese Dragons, Indo-Japanese Dragons, Dragon Temples, Images, Dragon Shrines, Dragons in Modern Culture, Other Asian Dragons

Famous quotes containing the words japanese and/or dragon:

    The Japanese say, “If the flower is to be beautiful, it must be cultivated.”
    Lester Cole, U.S. screenwriter, Nathaniel Curtis, and Frank Lloyd. Nick Condon (James Cagney)

    The Powers whose name and shape no living creature knows
    Have pulled the Immortal Rose;
    And though the Seven Lights bowed in their dance and wept,
    The Polar Dragon slept,
    His heavy rings uncoiled from glimmering deep to deep....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)