Ancient tales are told of the journey of the Koi, leaping through white waters and climbing waterfalls with all of their might and strength to reach Dragon Gate…the turning point in the life of a Koi from fish to Dragon!

Dragon Gate is a place that sits at the top of Yellow River, it is the source of mystical forces and draws the Koi into it’s magnetic current. The Koi swims against the current and jumps out of the rapid waters to gain distance against the strong currents of Yellow River…it’s sole ambition is to reach Dragons Gate to become a Dragon.

A symbol of perseverance, strength and determination, the Koi is revered by many tribes and cultures in todays societies. Not least is the Tattoo community where the Koi is chosen as a permanent mark upon the body to signify the subjects strength and perseverance in life, an hommage to a struggle throughout a journey to reach ones ultimate goal.

‘The legend records that on the third moon of each year, the Koi that had successfully made the journey to Dragons Gate, had their heads burned off by lightning as they leaped over the rapids, the Kois head was replaced by that of a dragon’s and then their bodies took the full form of the mighty Dragon.’

The nine warrior Koi listened intently to the elders’ tales, their emotions were a mixture of fear and excitement, the passion for their collective ambition drove them to one day, make the journey to Dragons Gate. The names of the nine Koi were Akihito, Naruhito, Noryuki, Jakehiro, Michiko, Eko, Etsuko, Juri and Ikumi and they were 5 girls and 4 boys, equal in strength, determination and intelligence but very different in character. Each koi had its own distinctive marking which allowed the Princess to give them each a name.

Akihito, was a male Koi and probably the most dominant of the warriors
Naruhito, was a male Koi very sympathetic in nature but strong minded nonetheless
Noryuki, was a male Koi, the wildest of the bunch
Jakehiro, was a male Koi, the maverick
Michiko, was a female Koi, very wise with great leadership instinct
Eko, was a female Koi, independent in every way even with an injured tail fin
Etsuko, also a female Koi, the youngest and most energetic of the warriors
Juri, a female Koi and the oldest warrior, the great councillor
Ikumi, probably the prettiest of the Koi, beware this warriors beauty !

return frequently to read more about the 9 Warrior Koi and the journey to Dragon Gate!

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 let 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 Koi Fish friends.

After the dramatic rescue of the Princess and the fuss and ceremony that surrounded Akihito afterwards, the desire for Adventure was tempered somewhat, the Koi Fish had a new life and this was adventure enough. All thoughts of Dragon Gate disappeared from the minds of the Koi as their new Imperial friend became a curiosity, that is until one day when the friends were together in the Imperial lakes.

Princess Yazuri was only a very young girl when she encountered the Koi in the lake, the reason that she had ventured into the lakes was due to her being bored with her very short and young imperial life, at the age of six she should have known better than to have put her self in danger, there was a presence of mischief about her which was probably at the root of her finding such trouble that fateful day.

It was by pure misfortune that the Koi had met Princess Yazuri and pure fortune that the incident had turned everybodies life around for the better, the Koi were protected by imperial law and in return the Princess was now protected by the nine Koi fish.

‘I am so lucky to have you all’ said Yazuri in an outburst of happiness, splashing her arms against the surface of the lake ‘what would I do without you, I ask myself? Life would be so dull, the Palace is dull, Imperial life is dull…’ her words came as a great shock to the Koi.

‘but surely…highness, it is an honour to be bestowed with such responsibility for your people and your land…to have so many look to you for guidance, is this not your ambition in life, to be dutiful to your empire?’ said Juri, the oldest of the Koi circle,

‘an honour yes!’ replied Yazuri ‘But I am too young for ceremony, I would like to enjoy life a little before things become too serious. I want to explore the lands surrounding the Empire and beyond, I have only seen what there is within the palace grounds…you Koi must have enjoyed many adventures in your lives with so much more to look forward to, it is so funny isn’t it? I want to get out and you want to come in, I guess that this is life?’

The Princess was surely very mature in her thoughts for only a little girl, her mind was full of wanting for adventure…
‘adventure is so dangerous’ exclaimed Naruhito ‘ we would all like to think that life holds so much more in store for us but typically that is not always the case, what is important is that the empire is in safe hands and that you are always safe and protected from danger’

‘that is boring Naruhito!’ snapped Yazuri ‘you cannot tell me that you have no desire in life to achieve more than just floating around a big Imperial pond! What kind of fulfilment is that? You must have had the urge for adventure at some point in your life…no?’

At this point Naruhito remembered the day of the rescue and realised the flame of passion that he had for the tale of Dragon Gate that Juri and Akihito were discussing prior to finding the Princess in distress.

‘Yes…you are right! Cried Naruhito ‘Dragon Gate, this is my destiny, this is where my ambition in life lies…we were supposed to be going to the elders ponds that day, to ask them about the Yellow River and the adventures through the rapids and falls…Yazuri, you are a genius and you must come with us!’

‘I am forbidden to travel outside of the Imperial grounds my dear Koi friends, but if you have a desire then you must follow your instinct until the flame of your passion either rises or falls…chase the Dragon Gate Naruhito’

‘We will all go with you Naruhito, we are one, so we make the journey to the elders ponds together.’
The nine warrior Koi fish left the Princess behind the following day to seek out the elders in the ponds on the border of the Imperial grounds.

Li Bais Tale

My journey began some 60 years ago when, just like you young Koi Fish, my friends and I had the urge for adventure in our lives. There were 5 of us in total and we were led by Li Chan, who was by far the most courageous of our Koi group. At your age, it is said that there is a yearning to find more, a search for ones destiny, it is almost part of every Kois’ growing up to feel these urges, for some the urge is greater than others and it is this energy that drives the group.

The energy within our group came from Li Chan, he never stopped talking about ‘the journey’ and ‘Dragon Gate’, we were only young and we didn’t pay too much attention to him, I guess that this is a little like you Naruhito, it is your energy that is driving the groups quest for more.
We didn’t know of anyone who had made the journey through the sacred waters so we couldn’t ask anybody for advice, direction or truth in the tale, it was purely instinctual from Li Chan. What is clear is that he was drawn from within to achieve something greater in life and this energy acted like a compass for the journey that we made.

When I say that it was instinctual, I mean that Li Chan was so convinced of the epic journey that nothing else mattered in life, it was his destiny and possibly his fate.

Li Chans energy took us to the foot of the great Jade Dragon River, commonly known today as the Yulong River near the city of Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang region, the mountainous route along the river is said to be of the most heavenly scenery on earth, with tall green mountains reaching for the sky in the shape of dragons teeth and within them caverns so deep that the mountains almost appear to start again under the water, the route is truly perilous!

My journey took a total of 5 days, starting from the very spot that we are swim in today, Li Chan led the path along the great Yulong River. Our route took us through some of the most treacherous water scapes that I have ever encountered, the deepest and widest underwater caverns, the fastest rapid waters and the angriest of all river currents were all energised by the melting springtime snows in the mountains. Cherry blossom swirled in the whirlpools as the winds tore them from the trees along the river banks, only to be outnumbered by the stream of Koi that took the same journey.

An amazing sight has never been witnessed since, the river rapids were choked with hundreds upon hundreds of Koi fish racing along the river.
By far, the hardest part of the journey was on our approach to the falls, the spring thaw caused a torrent of water to flow from the mountain tops and down the waterfalls, sending a frantic current against the path of the Koi. The final hurdle was more arduous and challenging as the rains began to fall harder and harder, the resulting currents were of a force that we had never experienced before.
Regardless of these extremes, we fought the ensuing waters falling from the mountain tops through the falls and endured the journey to the pool at the foot of the Dragon Gate falls.

When I arrived at the pool there were many hundreds of Koi circulating wildly in a whirlpool. I had lost contact with my fellow Koi fish long ago during the journey and I never caught sight of them again. At this point it did not matter or even enter into my thoughts, I was fixated, along with my fellow several hundred Koi, on the leap up the great water fall to our collective destinies.
By this time, the rains showed no sign of slowing down and they made the whirlpool flow even faster in its circular motion. Lightening began to light up the mountain tops as though it was daylight for a split second! Then a gargantuan crash of thunder accompanied the flash followed by another and another.

Akihito and his eight young friends were fixated at Li Bais recollection of the journey, clinging to his every word with wide eyes not daring to blink!

As the lightning struck the mountain tops, the Koi began to leap from the water creating a frenzy in the pool with their fins and tails…as the frenzy heightened I saw two Koi begin the climb, a powerful leap and then a spring off the stone walls of the mountain side to elevate themselves further up the torrential flow. It seemed that the Koi were fighting a huge battle with all of their might, against all odds, but succeeding nonetheless.

The two Koi were followed by a further ten, then another twenty, thirty…up they climbed out of sight, the pool gradually began to empty until my time came, I leaped with all my might and it was if I were carried upwards by the upwards flow of Koi against the flow of the waterfall. It was a kind of energy that carried me, like Chi carrying the whole body of Koi along their path, we say this is the Koi Chi, we each possess the force throughout our lives although it only becomes heightened when in a large group, I have only experienced this energy once in my life and never since.

I recall that there were seventy one Koi fish ahead of me, why I know this number? I don’t know? But I counted seventy one in all of this frenzy, these seventy one jumped ahead of the group and then the leap stopped, the Chi like energy began to slow down and the pond became calm. With this calming I fell back down the water fall into the pond, plunging into the depths.

As I surfaced I looked around at the hundreds of Koi, they were still, motionless, staring at the top of the fall where the seventy one had gone before them. The clouds began to clear and we looked upwards to the source of the fall, right at the top we could see just one of the seventy one reaching Dragons Gate, then it happened…

An amazing sight before us…the single lone Koi, broke free from the 70 leapers, it was as if this Koi was elevated to the summit by all of our collective energies. Then the skies roared and released a blinding flash which burst down from the clouds, a lightening stream from the heavens like a the spear of a fisherman, pierced the Koi between the eyes! When the lightening faded, the Koi had been set free from his fish form and had begun to take the form of a mighty dragon, first the head and thereafter his body a very proud and beautiful sight to behold!

The Koi Dragon floated into the air and then, like a maple leaf, he began to fall towards the pool. As the koi fell toward me I felt a sense of familiarity, peering through the falling water I could see the Koi Dragon approaching the pond as if it were lifeless, as it approached I saw familiar markings to the head of the newly formed Dragon. Then I realised it was Li Chan, my most courageous friend whom I set out upon this journey with, he had made it to Dragon Gate and made the majestical transformation…it was a truly amazing sight! He fell towards me, springing into life and taking flight with his new Dragon wings just moments before his body touched the pool, which by now was full of Koi Fish gazing up in wonderment at the sight before them.

I returned back to these ponds two days later to join my family once again, with a kind of fulfilment inside me, knowing that Li Chan had reached his destiny.

Since that day I have witnessed his passing through the skies and around the Imperial Gardens, some say the spectre is only a shooting star but
I know that Li Chan is watching the skies around the Imperial Palace, offering protection to the people of China.

I sense the same drive and desire in this group of Koi as we had 60 years ago before we set off along our journey, the energy is very strong in you all and each of you plays an important and meaningful role in the end game, you may not reach Dragon Gate after making the arduous journey but your Chi is essential in the overall effort with your fellow Koi, some may not make the journey at all, some may die on route but this is life…a magical journey upon which we depend upon others throughout our travels to achieve our goals. The Kois story is one of reward and achievement through perseverance and endurance…above all enjoy life and make your choices and decisions wisely!