Otohime, the most famous Dragon Princess of them all and the o-kami of Mt. Fuji, used her front middle claw to poke her tiny half-brother in his jeweled brown tummy. The infant dragon, looking so like his European mother in feature and shape, rolled backwards onto his tail, giggling, and tumbled over. Rizantona, the Dragon Queen of the West, smiled indulgently.

The little dragon was brown, with bronze overtones from his bronze-gold father, but his scaled hide sparkled with ...