My trip to Japan was such an amazing journey. Many things fascinate me about this country and their culture.
One of them are Japanese dragons.
I love dragons! For me, they represent incredible intensity of magical energy. The Japanese dragons are highly respected creatures. They usually have three toes on each foot (important! all other dragons in the world are descendant of Japanese dragons , who had traveled far from Japan and grew more toes while traveling) and many heads- five or eight. The Japanese dragons are water creatures - they create rains and typhoons.
Some of the Dragons are wise and generous and can bring miraculous gifts to the people, who see them and respect them. One of the dragons become the grandmother of the Japanese emperor. Other dragons are as evil as European's and have the same ugly habit of stealing and eating beautiful women. And the same as European knights, many of the Japanese samurais fought the Dragon to save the princess.
I liked one of the legends, were young girl fought the dragon to save the samurai.
In this legend young women Tokoyo went into the journey to search for her samurai father, who was exiled to the rural island for being rebellious. When Tokoyo arrived to the island, she hasn't found her father, but on the shore she met a priest, who was leading a young girl to the cliff near the ocean. The priest was praying and the girl was sobbing. Tokoya wanted to protect the girl, then the priest explained, that a scary dragon, named Yofune-Nushi, terrorizes their small fishermen village. Every year, the dragon forced the people of this village to sacrifice a virgin to him. He threatened to conjure up a terrific storm and destroy their fishing fleet if they did not comply.
Brave Tokyo volunteered to be sacrificed, instead of the girl. She jumped to the sea, found a dragon there and killed the beast, striking him in the eye with her dagger. When she brought the body of a dragon to the shore, she was praised as a hero and the ruler of the province returned her father from the exile.