Carpe Diem #462, Crystal

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We had a great start of our new Carpe Diem Haiku Kai month and today (2/5) we will go on with our 'journey' along Myths, Legends, Saga and Folktales in the 'mother-land' of Haiku, Japan. Today our prompt is Crystal and I have found another nice story titled: Ryujin: How to Steal Jewels From a Dragon God.

Ryujin is a Japanese dragon god who lives in the sea. He makes frequent appearances in Japanese myth (as do his many beautiful daughters).

[...] In one story, Ryujin steals priceless jewels from a prince (the tide jewels). The prince embarks on a journey to recover the jewels when he meets a beautiful pearl diver (ama) on the beach. They marry and have a son. The pearl diver becomes a princess (Princess Tamatori).
Princess Tamatori finds a way to take the jewels back from the dragon king. She plays music to lull him to sleep. When the dragon king discovers the jewels gone he pursues her. She cuts her breast to hide the jewels inside. The blood from this action cloud the waters enough to aid her escape.
She dies but successfully recovers the jewels for her new family. [...]


Ryujin pursues Tamatori

A wonderful story ... and a great woodblock-print ... And here is my attempt to compose a haiku towards it.

ama on the beach
gives her most beautiful smile -
pearls for a dragon god

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Crystal Sunlight

crystal clear sunlight
reflects all colors in the mirror -
shadow of a dragon

(c) Chèvrefeuille

What a joy to share these with you all. I hope you are inspired to compose and share your haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 4th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to post our next episode, Turtle, later on today. For now ... have fun!!