Dragons

Japanese dragons or dragon are various legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported dragon stories from China, Korea, and Vietnam. The style of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon. Like these other East Asian dragons, most Japanese dragons are water deities associated with rain and bodies of water, and are usually depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. The modern Japanese language has numerous "dragon" words, including indigenous tatsu from Old Japanese ta-tu, Sino-Japanese ryū or ryō 竜 from Chinese lóng 龍, nāga ナーガ from Sanskrit nāga, and doragon ドラゴン from English "dragon" (this the latter being used almost exclusively to refer to the European dragon and derived fictional creatures).