The Thunder-Weapon in Ancient Japan
Edwin O. Reischauer
Harvard University
The identification of neolithic stone axes as well as meteorites and other unusual stones with thunderbolts is a feature of the folklore of many peoples throughout the world and has been the subject of considerable scholarly research.[1] In China this identification of thunderbolts with neolithic stone axes is known as early as the T‘ang dynasty.[2] In Japan it has often been noted in modern times, and even archaeologists employ such quaint terms as “thunder-axe” (raifu or kaminari no masakari 雷斧), “thunder-club” (raitsui 雷槌), and “thunder-pestle” (raiko 雷鈷) for stone axes, stone maces (usually with distinct phallic qualities), and stone mallets or picks.[3] But early references to these names for the thunderbolt are not known in Japan, and one can reasonably assume that they are relatively recent borrowings from China, where “thunder-axe” is the general term for stone weapons.[2]
However, there are several small pieces of evidence which do hint at the possibility that the Japanese already at a very early date shared in the wide-spread belief that stone weapons were thunderbolts. The possible etymology of ikazuchi, the ancient Japanese word for thunder, offers our first hint. Ikazuchi, I believe, may originally have meant “the august (ika) club (tsuchi),”
- ↑ Cf. Chr. Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore. A Study in Comparative Archaeology (Cambridge, England, 1911) for a detailed study of the whole problem. On pages 117-8 he has some brief references to China and Japan.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cf. Chang Hung-chao, Shih ya 章鴻釗，石雅 412 (H. T . Chang, Lapidarium sinicum. A Study of the Rocks, Fossils and Metals as Known in Chinese Literature, Peking, The Geological Survey of China, 1927). Under the T‘ang the term for these “thunderbolts” seems to have been lei-kung-shih-fu 雷公石斧 (stone axes of the thunder lord), but the modern term is lei-fu 雷斧 (thunder-axes).
- ↑ For good illustrations of these cf. T. Kanda, Notes on Ancient Stone Implements, &c., of Japan, plates 4-9, 11 (Tōkyō 1884).
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