Reading Notes: The Labors of Yamato: The Dragon, Part B

The Labors of Yamato: The Dragon
Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Yamato goes into the forest after his victory
He is joyous because he regained the sacred sword
His heart yearned for the faithful tacibana
He first needed to go visit a sorceress to charge her with treachery and theft
He jumped into the water and onto the siren that had golden scales and a dark wave goes over him
Suddenly when he is about to fall into a slumber in the water, he feels himself being enveloped by a loathly serpent
He recognizes a voice in the sea and it says “I hold thee forever”
He also hears princess tacibana gently saying his name
Yamato knew “the goddess more beautiful than Benten whose love was greater than her own,” was his faithful princess tacibana
Tacibana got him out from the water
He then falls onto her chest and is out
When he comes to tacibana had left him and hours went by and she never returned
Yamato starts his journey to find her
He found the city she is from is in utter panic and chaos
A dragon had arrived on their land and slayed all the cattle and destroyed all the rice fields
Everyone in the town was devastated
Yamato frantically calls for his princess
He instead found many lifeless bodies
He then finally finds her waving a wand and chanting
A dragon emerges and charges towards yamato

Dragon of the Sea

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