As legend goes, the Dragon King once stole a sacred jewel gifted to the head of the Fujiwara clan. A local ama (a pearl diver), in love with the clan leader’s son, decided to reclaim the jewel from the Dragon King’s underwater palace. She lulled the king and his guards to sleep with music and fled with the jewel, but they soon awoke and gave chase. Realizing she could not fight them all off, the diver cut a hole in her chest and hid the pearl inside—in doing so, she saved the jewel but lost her life. The classic tale of Tamatori-hime (literally, “jewel-taking princess”) captivated artists, inspiring many plays and paintings. Utagawa Kuniyoshi alone created at least four separate prints of the diver’s daring heist.
