Kiyoyasu

The bundle of bamboo on Kiyoyasu’s back is perfectly balanced, each stalk cut and cured to withstand the howling winds of The Dragon Wastelands. It is both their medium and their answer to the only other artist in this desolate expanse: a stone carver they have never spoken to. The rivalry began when Kiyoyasu wove a small, intricate basket and left it by a dragon’s skeletal ribcage. The next day, it was gone, replaced by a stone polished into the shape of a perfect teardrop. Since then, their silent conversation has escalated. Kiyoyasu builds bamboo bridges over chasms; the carver etches legends into canyon walls. Kiyoyasu’s gleeful eyes are for the thrill of discovery, for the joy of rising to an unspoken challenge. The unease is for the standard they must meet, a perfection demanded by a peer they only know through their work.