Helen Van Aken
TATSU the Dragon
illustrated by YOSHIE NOGUCHI
RUTLAND • VERMONT: TOKYO • JAPAN
CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY: PUBLISHERS
Representatives
Continental Europe: BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich
British Isles: PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London
Australasia: PAUL FLESCH & CO., PTY. LTD., Melbourne
Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at
Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032
Copyright in Japan, 1966
by Helen Van Aken
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-20675
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1291-9 (ebook)
First printing, 1966
Book design and typography by F. Sakade
PRINTED IN JAPAN
Table of Contents
| Chapter One: | Birth of a Dragon |
| Chapter Two: | Tatsu Becomes a Hero |
| Chapter Three: | To Shrine Island |
| Chapter Four: | Tatsu the Fire Demon |
| Chapter Five: | Tatsu's First Dream |
| Chapter Six: | Happy New Year |
| Chapter Seven: | Another Dream |
| Chapter Eight: | Wings for Tatsu |
| Chapter Nine: | Hachi's Story |
| Chapter Ten: | Watch-Dragon |
| Chapter Eleven: | Poetry Contest |
| Chapter Twelve: | A Secret Revealed |
| Chapter Thirteen: | Hachi's Return |
| Chapter Fourteen: | Kidnapped |
| Chapter Fifteen: | Long Flight |
| Chapter Sixteen: | Found! |
| Chapter Seventeen: | Escape |
| Chapter Eighteen: | The Truth |
The character for dragon 龍,which appears on the half-title page and along with the initial T at the beginning of the story, originally represented a picture of a dragon.
Birth of a Dragon
ATSU WAS born to be a temple festival dragon. Jiro and Zenji made him to take part in a festival parade in the Japanese City of the Golden Marsh.
The boys put their dragon together out of green cloth stretched over big bamboo hoops for dragon bones. They twisted brown yarn to make him a tail.
He didn't have golden scales like a real dragon, just daubs of yellow paint on his green cloth skin.
His head was shaped over smaller bamboo hoops with notches cut in front to make strong sharp teeth.
His whiskers were made of purple yarn.
Tatsu didn't have strong iron claws like a real dragon or any legs to get around with. There were just two slits left underneath so the boys could get in and make him walk.
Jiro stood up inside him where his front legs would have been if he'd had any legs, and Zenji stood up inside him where his hind legs would have been, and they could take him places. As soon as Tatsu was finished, he began to feel like a dragon. That is, he felt like a dragon until the boys began to talk about him. That made Tatsu begin to wonder.
"I suppose he's good enough to take to the temple festival," he heard Zenji say. "He won't have to do brave deeds like a real dragon. So it won't matter that he can't breathe out steam and fire."
"What brave deeds would a real dragon do?" asked Jiro. It was just the question Tatsu wanted to ask, but he hadn't any voice to ask it with.
"Oh, you know," answered Zenji, "he'd jump into the sea to save men from drowning, or fly through the sky to rescue a maiden in distress. That's what Tatsu's dragon ancestors did."
"No, I guess he couldn't do things like that. He couldn't fly to rescue anybody because he hasn't any wings."
"He does look silly without claws or gold scales or wings! But he's fine for our parade!"
The boys got in through the slits and took Tatsu up and down the city streets past the temple and