The Legend of the Nine Warrior Koi Fish (4)

Naruhitos Tale

The months that followed the great exodus to the imperial lakes, the Koi population grew stronger. The Princess swam confidently at Akihitos side and the Emperor took great comfort in her new friends in the lake keeping her from harm.

Akihito and the Princess became very close and he was honoured with the title of the Water Guardian to the Princess, this meant that whenever she was in the lake he was ultimately responsible for her safety. Akihito took great pride in his responsibility and the fellow Koi respected his position in their world.

As with any Guardian, there must be a second in command, this honour was bestowed upon Naruhito, Akihitos life long and closest friend. Naruhito was a very patient and sympathetic Koi, he was known to be the negotiator …whenever Akihito was challenged by rogue fish, Naruhito was always there to use reason rather than strength to resolve the challenge.

The friendship began when they were very young Koi, as usual Akihito was going about his daily routines collecting food for his Mother from the only remaining source on the river, when he was faced with an aggressive river snake looking to take the scraps of food from the young unsuspecting Koi. No match against the large poisonous snake, Akihito stood strong and awaited the ensuing battle with the venomous river snake to protect his family and their source of food.

It was clear that the snake was prepared to fight and had settled into the area because of the abundance of food.

What was Akihiro to do? He could fight the strongest of Koi it was true, but a river snake could wrap itself around the young Koi and take squeeze the life from his gills in an instant!

As Akihiro contemplated his fate, he heard approaching Koi, the sound of a male and a female to the feeding ground, his gaze was on the snake and as much as he wanted to shout to warn off the approaching innocents he could not alert the snake to his presence.

The voices became louder as they approached, the snake hung from a tree above the feeding ground watching out for the unsuspecting prey. Suddenly a voice came from the tree top above the snake, ‘is this a branch or part of your

slimy tail?’, the snake raised his long neck to see what it was that was interrupting his afternoon snack, but there was nothing to see… ‘up here, you fool!’ the voice bellowed, the snake was angry at the impudence coming from the tree top and started winding its way to the top…’No..here!’ came another voice…’Over here!’ came another, it appeared that there were voices coming from everywhere in the tree, but nothing could be seen.

Akihiro looked on in disbelief as the snake wound itself around the tree, trying to find out the impudent tree dweller who was yelling insults at him from the left and then from the right, above and below…spiralling into a frenzied route through the trees, the snake eventually tied himself into a knot so tight that he could not release himself, the more he struggled the tighter it became!

Once the snake was imprisoned by his own curling body in the tree, the source of the voices became more of a mystery to Akihito,

‘hey you, the large Silver Koi, what are you doing just floating there?, come over here!’…

’over where?’ said a rather relieved Akihito now that the danger of the snake was over

‘We are at the bank of the river, down here!’ was the reply

Akihiro looked towards where the voice was coming from and he saw eight Koi heads just above the waterline, ‘how did you get up into the tree’ asked Akihiro?

‘A simple trick my silver friend you see, the roots of the tree are hollow, when we saw that you were in the sight of the river snake my Koi friends and I shouted into the roots, which carried our voices into the tops of the tree, the snake was curious by nature and had to slide to the top to find out where the voices were coming from, by shouting into the eight hollow roots we were able to tie the snake up into a knot…sometimes brain is better than bravery my silver friend!’

‘My name is Naruhito and these are my 7 fellow Koi, Noryuki, Jakehiro, Michiko, Eko, Etsuko, Juri and Ikumi…would you like to travel back to the lakes with us today?’

And so the long loyal friendship was born between Akihito, Naruhito and his seven friends.

The Legend of the Nine Warrior Koi Fish (3)

Akihitos Tale

As a young Koi, Akihito was clearly going to be a leader in life, he was very confident and strong and he bore the markings of a true warrior. Fellow Koi would always seek him to be in his company, it was always good to be seen to be with Akihito. There are many tales in existence recalling the adventures of Akihito but none of them as famous as the day he discovered the Princess in distress whilst swimming in the palace lakes at a very young age.

As Akihito raced along the white waters of the adjoining rivers with his fellow Koi, he sensed an unusual movement in the water, a kind of vibration that he had never felt before, it was a ripple carried by a warm summer breeze along the surface of the river…within the breeze was a feeling of anguish, Akihito was alert and swam into action.

As he approached the imperial lakes he sensed the vibration and anguish heightening to a frenzy, Akihito swam like never before using all of his might to reach the source of the vibration. His frantic journey took him to the shores of the palace lakes, an area where Koi were told never to go, the waters around the lakes were patrolled by guards who were instructed to ward off any unfamiliar fish by the Emperor, it was known to be a dangerous place to venture by all Koi.

Within minutes of first sensing the ripple, Akihito arrived at the source of the skirmish…it was a little girl and she had fallen into the lake. Not able to swim at such a young age the Princess was forbidden to venture near the banks of the waters surrounding the Palace, but it was clear that in her determination to have adventure in her young life, that she had befallen danger and entered into the deepest of the lakes to the North of the Palace.

Akihito, the strongest of the young Koi fish, swam to the aide of the young Princess, flipping her onto his back she clung to him for her dear life until he reached the shore of the Northern Lake, as he approached he sensed more danger as the guards and the Emperor were running to find where the Princess had ventured to. As they approached they saw the most magical sight, the Princess was riding on a large Koi fish, she was distressed but safe.

From that day on, the Emperor opened up the grounds and lakes to the Koi fish, a decision which brought great reverence to Akihito, he was now known as

the brave warrior Koi…the once forbidden areas of the Palace Lakes were now their home waters, they had the pardon of the Empire to swim freely within.

These events changed the lives of the Koi fish and the Princess and also brought colour and richness to the Palace Lakes like there had never been before, the waters were abundant with all manner of Koi who filled the once lifeless lakes with a rainbow of colour.

Irezumi

Irezumi is a Japanese word that refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark; a form of tattooing.
The word can be written in several ways, each with slightly different connotations.
The most common way of writing irezumi is with Chinese characters who literally means to "insert ink".
These characters (also pronounced bunshin) suggest "decorating the body". Bunshin is more esoteric, being written with the characters for "stay" or "remain" and "blue" or "green", and probably refers to the appearance of the main shading ink under the skin.

Tattooing for spiritual and decorative purposes in Japan is thought to extend back to at least the Jomon or paleolithic period (approximately 10,000 BC).
Some scholars have suggested that the distinctive cord-marked patterns observed on the faces and bodies of figures dated to that period represent tattoos, but this claim is by no means unanimous.
There are similarities, however, between such markings and the tattoo traditions observed in other contemporaneous cultures.

In the following Yayoi period (c. 300 BC-300 AD) tattoo designs were observed and remarked upon by Chinese visitors.
Such designs were thought to have spiritual significance as well as functioning as a status symbol.

Starting in the Kofun period (300-600 AD) tattoos began to assume negative connotations.
Instead of being used for ritual or status purposes, tattooed marks began to be placed on criminals as a punishment (this was mirrored in ancient Rome, where slaves were known to have been tattooed with mottoes such as "I am a slave who has run away from his master").

Source: Wikipedia

Koi fish tattoos

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Koi Seek tattoos are now really common among men and women.
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There are a few out there that also get them as good corroborate tattoos with writer of a tradtional Denizen designing.
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