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The Enoshima Engi is a history of the temples and shrines on Enoshima
Island in Sagami Bay. It was written in Chinese, the scholarly language of
the time, by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kokei (皇慶) in 1047 A.D.
The Enoshima Engi consists of two parts. The first tells the story of the
tribulations of prehistoric villagers who lived in the vicinity of Enoshima.
The villagers were plagued for a period of a thousand-some years by a
destructive, five-headed dragon that had its lair in a nearby lake. Aware of
their suffering, on May 31, 552 A.D., the goddess Benzaiten caused the
island of Enoshima to arise from the bottom of the bay to serve as her
abode. She then descended onto the island amidst a series of spectacular
terrestrial and aerial phenomena. The dragon fell in love with the beautiful
goddess and asked her to be his consort. Benzaiten, who was widely known for
her persuasive eloquence, rejected the dragon's proposal and made it
understand that it had been doing wrong by plaguing the villagers. Ashamed,
the dragon promised to cease its wrong-doing. It then faced south (devotedly
facing the island where Benzaiten lived) and changed into a hill. To this
day, the hill is known as Dragon's-Mouth Hill (Japanese: tatsu-no-kuchi yama
龍の口山).
Although this story seems fantastic on the surface, it very likely
contains many factual elements. The dragon, for example, is probably a
metaphor for the water of a violent local river that is still notorious for
its floods. Its five heads were probably four of the river's tributaries
plus the mouth of the river. The descent of the goddess may have been
inspired by aerial phenomena such as the passage of a large meteor.
The second part of the Enoshima Engi relates visits to Enoshima by
eminent monks. Among the visitors was Jikaku Daishi (慈覺大師), the posthumous
name of Ennin (圓仁, 792-862 A.D.), the third chief priest of Enryaku-ji
(延暦寺), the center of Buddhism in Japan.
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