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ASAMA-YAMA AND FUZI-SAN. 869
earning from his playmates the title of " temple builder." When twenty years of
age he secretly left his home, and retired to the cave of the Thousand-Handed
Kwan-non at Idzaru. Here he had a dream in midwinter of a great mountain to
the north, on the summit of which lay a sword over three feet in length. On
awaking he set out for the indicated spot, and notwithstanding the deep snow, at
last beheld the
object
of his vision. Ascending the mountain he continued to live
an austere life for three years, during which he was fed on fruits brought to him
by supernatural agency. He then returned to Idzaru and remained for five years
as a novice in a temple administered by Chinese priests. Returning to the
mountain now called Kobu-ga-hara, he beheld from its summit four miraculous
clouds of different colours rising straight up into the sky, and he at once set off to
reach them, carrying his prayer-books and images in a bundle on his back. But
his advance being barred by a broad impetuous river, he fell upon his knees in
prayer, when there appeared on the opposite bank a gigantic being with skulls
strung round his neck, who promised to help him as he had once helped the pilgrim
H'wen Tsang over the river of Golden Sand. Saying which he flung across a pair
of green and blue snakes, whereupon the waters were spanned by a long bridge,
like a rainbow, over which the saint crossed to the other side. Then he had a vision
informing him that the hill to the north was the " Mount of the Four Gods," the
abode of the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger, and the Gloomy
Warrior. On reaching the summit he found that this was the goal of his journey,
for there were the four clouds rising up before him. Here, therefore, he built a
shrine for the image of the Thousand-Handed Kwan-non, and named it the
" Monastery of the Four Dragons." Sho-do Sho-nin died in A.D. 817.
ASAMA-YAMA AND FUZI-SAN.
The water-parting skirting the east side of the Sinano Valley is also crowned
by many volcanic peaks, conspicuous amongst which are Sirane-yama and Adzmayama,
the former of which was the scene of a violent eruption in 1871. In the
neighbourhood are some petroleum wells, one of which has.been sunk to a depth of
740 feet. Farther south the main range is intersected by a chain of volcanoes
running north-north-west and south-south-east, amongst
which the most famous
are the Asama-yama and Fuzi-san. The former, which attains an elevation of
8,400 feet, is one of the highest and most active in the archipelago. The memory
still >m-\i\es of the tremendous eruption of 1783, when the surrounding country
was covered by lava streams and pumice, when forty-eight villages were destroyed,
and many thousand lives lost.
A vast river of molten rock utterly ruined a famous primeval forest of con-
siderable extent besides .! large number of hamlets on the north side. Red hot
in;i--es of Mone were hurled in this direction as well as towards the east and south-
The neighbourhood
east, while a dense shower of ashes turned (lie day into night.
of the \ake-seii-do between Oiwake and the Usui-toge, which had formerly been
highly cultivated, was suddenly converted into a wilderness, and a large number of