Day Four

I really thought that the research today was going to be a little easier that yesterday's, however I found even more stuff to know about the Heian Period. I am even considering about adding a pinch of the Chinese culture into it. Around the Heian Period was also the time that the Tang Dynasty was declining. Also there was regular contact with the Asian mainland and Japan, so I decided to have like a sleeping, herbal medicine from China. During the Tang dynasty it was called "worry-free powder."

In "The Blue Bird," the setting starts off in a palace in France.
Princess Fiordelisa's room is where she was cast away to when the Prince started liking her at the party.
There was also a dark place that the step-sister, Turritella, had met with the Prince, and this place was where he thought she was the Princess and gave her his ring.
The wedding ceremony was when the Prince realized that it was actually Turritella that he gave his ring to and refused to marry her. This was also when the Fairy had turned him into a blue bird since he refused to marry her.
The tower was where the Princess was locked up for years, and the Blue Bird came to to visit her. The Blue Bird also brings jewels from his castle.
Turritella, fled to her fairy godmother, Fairy Mazilla's, place, and here was where the Prince's friend, the Enchanter came to persuade the fairy to take back the spell of the being a bird.
After Fiordelisa became queen she went on a search for her Prince, the Blue Bird, and then she meets an old lady at a lake, who turns out to be a fairy and tells her that the Prince is no longer a Blue Bird.
Finally the Chamber of Echoes is a place that anything that is said in there can be heard in the King's room. So knowing that fact, Queen Fiordelisa bribed the wife-to-be of the the King, Turritella, with some jewels so sleep in the Chamber of Echoes.

The story takes place over a stretch of years. It starts off with the party of finding a husband for Fiordelisa and Turritella.
The Prince meets up with Turritella, expecting her to be Fiordelisa at night time, in a dark place.
The time that the Princess is cast off in the tower and when the Blue Bird comes to visit her takes place during the night when no one is really aware.
The time of the wedding is most likely to be during the day time, same goes to when the Enchanter speaks with Fairy Mazilla.
It is night time when Queen Fiordelisa bribes Turritella to let her sleep in the Chamber of Echoes for a couple of nights.

In my version of the story, it will take place in the Heian Palace located in the north central Heian-kyo, or modern Kyoto.
Her room will be where her step-mom casts her off too.
Her step-sister will also pretend to be her and wait in the heroine's room when the lover comes to talk to her at night about marriage.
My heroine's lover will be a samauri, but after he refuses to marry her step-sister, the step-mother goes to find a sorcerer to cast a spell on the him. So, in my version the step-mother will have already known about the spell.
However instead of being forced to stay in a tower, she'll just be at the pond and that is when she sees a blue heron and he later tells her of what happened to him. Later the step-sister finds out and tells the step-mother of it.
This then leads to when a trap is set for the bird, and then his samurai friend finds him and seeks out the sorcerer.
Finally this will lead to the samurai's house where the heroine will finally find him.

The time of this story will be around the Japanese Heian Period and the Chinese Tang dynasty, so it would be around the year of 905. The reason I also added the Chinese dynasty is because the Samurai will actually have herbal powder, a version of the sleeping potion, to help him sleep.
Most of the story will actually take place around evening time, not too early and not too late.


Even thougth this doesn't really have to do with the topic of the blog, but it's more of a note reminder for me. I was planning to make the hero of the story to be a fish or something, but I discovered from my research today that the heron were actually a religious significance during the Heian Period, that there is even a court dance called the White Heron Dance, and it still exist up to today. And I've actually chosen to make it so that the spell was the Step-mother's idea, instead of her finding out from a spy like in the orignial story.