Day Eleven

Numbers! The three most common numbers that show up in the "The Blue Bird" are the numbers four, six, and seven. Honestly, I'm not quite sure why these specific numbers were used though. However, I did do some research on them.

The number four appears in the folktale when there are four masked figures that takes the princess to her room. Then there is another time when she was given four eggs to help her find her prince. The last time that the number was mention was when she reached a mirror that could let you see yourself of how you want to appear like. And people from all the four corners of the world comes to see it. There are many beliefs that come with this number. In the Christian bible, there are four books of the gospels. Which also is said to link to the four classical elements; fire, air, earth, and water.There are also four corners of the world; North, South, East, and West. However, in the Chinese culture, four is a homonym for death, so that's why some hospitals do not have a fourth floor.

The number six shows up in the story when she broke two of the four eggs. One of them contained six mice who could dance and do tricks. The other egg had six birds that could sing, talk, answer questions and tell fortunes. Six is a number that represents tact, beauty, and harmony. This was probably why they caught the attention of the step-sister.

Seven is another number to occur in the story quite often. This was the amount of years that the Prince was supposed to remain as a blue bird. The number seven can be known to be sacred or can be a spiritual number. In Christianity, it took God seven days to make everything, six day to create it, and he rested on the seventh day. Also, the ancient solar system even consisted of seven luminaries. However, I do not recall the Prince actually being under the spell for seven years.

In my pastiche I think I'll stick to only two numbers, five and seven. I'll make the Princess have five seashells, instead of four eggs. I chose five because in the East Asian cultures, there are actually five elements not four; water, fire, earth, wood, and metal. From these elements, the Japanese have based their days of the week on. When the Princess opened the eggs and six things came out of two the them, I've decided to add one more and make it seven. As for the years that the prince remains a bird, I think I'll just keep it seven. Seven is a like a lucky number in Japanese folklore. In Japanese mythology there are seven gods that are known as the Seven Gods of Fortune, or also known as the Seven Lucky Gods, and each god has its own traditional attribute.

So, as of now, these are just my choices in the numbers that I've chosen. I really couldn't find much about numbers in the Japanese culture. However I did find a couple of facts.