Welcome to
the Illustrated Story of the
Enoshima Engi
The Goddess, 
the Dragon, 
and the Island 
A thousand years ago, an aged monk
pored over fragments of ancient documents. In their pages he found a
story of
disasters caused long before by a destructive water-dragon. Living in a
lake formed by a violent river, the dragon had
brought destruction and suffering to a community that lived along the
river's banks.
The destruction peaked in the sixth
century. But just when the community thought it could bear no more,
Heaven sent a beautiful goddess to their aid. Amidst a spectactular
display of celestial and terrestial phenomena, she created an island
and then descended to make it her new home.
The dragon immediately fell in love
with the beautiful goddess, but ....
Piecing together the entire story from the fragments, the monk wrote a
history of the affair, and it became part of the history of the temple
on the island. About five hundred years ago, the temple had artists
create a series
of scroll-paintings that depicted the story of the goddess who tamed
the dragon.
These paintings appear on the following pages. I have added a short
narrative to explain the paintings.