which corresponds almost perfectly to “thunder club” (raitsui), the modern term for stone maces.[1]
There is more important evidence in Ennin’s 圓仁 diary of his travels in China during the ninth century,[2] where is to be found the statement, “Since the stone-god 石神 shook and sounded, we raised anchor and returned (up the bay).” As this was recorded on the day after the mast of the ship on which he was traveling had been badly split by lightning, one can conclude that the “stone-god” is in some way a reference to thunder, presumably because of the identification of stones with thunderbolts.
This “stone-god” may have been just an abstract deity to Ennin and his companions, synonymous with thunder itself, but it is not at all improbable that it was an actual “thunderbolt” of some sort on board the ship. The evidence for this is that a few days later, when the men on Ennin’s ship were terrified by a black bird which thrice circled the boat and by the sound of thunder coming roaring towards them from the north, Ennin recorded, “Together we made vows, absolved ourselves, and prayed to the god of the thunderbolt on board the ship 船上霹靂神.”[3]
- ↑ The etymology of kaminari, the modern word for thunder, is probably “the sound (nari) of the gods (kami).”
- ↑ Nittō guhō junrei gyōki 入唐求法巡禮行記, year 839, moon 5, day 28 (p. 200 in vol. 113 of the Dainihon bukkyō zensho 大日本佛教全書). Ennin is also known as Jikaku Daishi 慈覺大師.
- ↑ Year 839, moon 6, day 5 (p. 201). Cf. Blinkenberg 96. It is worth noting that Ennin and his companions did not limit their supplication to the god of the thunderbolt but also worshipped the local Chinese deities and several of the greater deities of Japan which were not connected in any way with thunder, with the gratifying result that “the thunder gradually stopped.” This implies a belief that any god might exercise control over thunder. Definite proof of this is afforded by the judgment of an oracle on the 27th day of the fifth moon, after the mast of the ship had been splintered by lightning. The oracle as recorded by Ennin was, “Various men from the ship have been buried in front of the local deity. Therefore you have incurred the anger of the god, who has produced this disaster.”
Another interesting example of thunder folklore afforded by Ennin’s diary is recorded on the third day of the sixth moon, when he noted that during another thunderstorm “those of us on board waved such things as spears, axes, and swords and shouted with all our might in order to fend off the thunderbolts.” Cf. Frazer, The Golden Bough. The Scapegoat 246-7 (London 1913).
