Prince Toyonari was Princess Hase younger brother, the child of her father and evil stepmother. The stepmother loathed that her son enjoyed playing with his older sister and even looked up to her. She tried to keep the two from playing together by scheduling their instructions at different times but it seemed the two always found a way to have time together. The stepmother knew she was going to have to create a reason for the young Prince Toyonari to not want to play with his sister.
The next morning a message came from the Emperor inviting the entire family to a celebration at the palace. At first, the stepmother was annoyed by the invitation, she knew that it would just be another opportunity for Princess Hase to impress everyone while her son was ignored. “Another celebration at the palace where that wrenched girl can still all of the favor away from my poor Toyonari,” sneered the stepmother.
As the words were coming out of her mouth the stepmother began to calculate a plan. “While I cannot stop Princess Hase from impressing everyone at the celebration, maybe I can help my son realize she is not as kind and sweet towards him as he thinks,” connived the stepmother. Off she went to find her husband to tell him about the invite and put her plan into motion.
The stepmother informed her husband of the invite but instead of telling him it was for the entire family, she told him that they were only allowed two places for the celebration. The husband knowing, he would need to take his wife said, “Then it will just be the two of us to attend the celebration. The kids will get to enjoy each other’s company for the night,” replied her husband.
Attempting to sound sincere the stepmother objected, “Oh why I would love to attend the celebration what if you took Princess Hase. She enjoys the Emperor and you two can have some father-daughter time together. It would be nice to have an evening with my son alone, he is so busy with his studies we don’t spend much time together.” The husband could tell that there was something suspicious about his wife encouraging him to take his daughter but he really did enjoy her time the best so he accepted the offer then went off to inform Princess Hase.
The night of the celebration while the father and Princess Hase were busy enjoying themselves they did not know that the stepmother was filling her son’s head with lies. The stepmother told Prince Toyonari, “I am sorry you must spend the evening with your mother but your sister stole your invitation to go the Emperor celebration. The invitations were only for the males of the household but your father preferred to take Princess Hase. So, he asked the Emperor if he could substitute her for you.”
The kind Prince Toyonari tried to assure himself by telling his stepmother, “I am sure Princess Hase had no idea that the invitation was meant for me. She would never hurt me on purpose.” The stepmother got a crooked smile as responded, “But she was with me when we received the invitation. She knew that it was meant for you but only cared about herself and getting to see the Emperor. I am so sorry you had to learn that she is a very vindictive young girl who wants only to advance herself. But I will always be here to look after you.”
After hearing this the young Prince Toyonari wanted to be alone and went to his room. When his sister returned home, he would not allow her into his room. He claimed to be sick. For the next three days, Prince Toyonari avoided his sister. Princess Hase could not understand why her brother was ignoring her so she sent one of her servants to inquire what was wrong. When her servant came back explaining what had happened while she was away at the celebration, Princess Hase burst into tears. If only she could talk to her brother to explain the truth, this time her stepmother had gone too far.
That night at dinner Princess Hase brought presents to the dinner table. She handed one present to her stepmother and one to her brother. She then turned to her father, “Would you like to explain what we brought back for them from the Emperor celebration?”
Happily, the father explained, “Since the two of you did not want to come to the celebration, Princess Hase wanted to get these gifts to enjoy from the Emperor. For you my wife, she picked out a jade necklace. And for you my son, she picked out an ivory handled samurai sword. Princess Hase thought you needed a new sword to further your instructions.”
Confused Prince Toyonari asked, “I wanted to come to the celebration but my place was taken by Princess Hase. Wasn’t it?” “Of course, not son, we were all invited to the celebration but your mother wanted to spend time with you so she suggested I just take Princess Hase with me. I would have loved to have had both of my children with me,” explained the father. Realizing what his mother had done Prince Toyonari learned that he could no longer trust his mother. He apologized to Princess Hase.
The Evil Stepmother from Cinderella. Source: Flickr by IzaKosti
Author’s Notes: This story is based on the reading of the Japanese Fairy Tales retold by Yei Theodora Ozaki. In the tale of The Story of Princess Hase, we meet an evil stepmother who loathes her stepdaughter Princess Hase. The reason I enjoyed this story so much is that it reminded me of Cinderella, but with slight difference. At one point the stepmother attempts to poison Princess Hase but fails because she gets the drinks mixed up. The stepmother ends up killing her own son instead. Until that point in the story the two children enjoyed playing together which the stepmother did not like, so I changed the story to have the brother live. This would, of course, make the stepmother mad and try to come up with a plan to get her son to hate the Princess as much as she does. Since Prince Toyonari is young he believes his mother at first and is hurt, but the father reveals the truth. The reason I have the father reveal the truth is that women in Japanese culture are not supposed to speak against their elders so the stepmother could have made her stop but the stepmother would not be able to object to her husband. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback and ideas!
I agree with you that this story had a very Cinderella type feel to it. I enjoyed reading your piece a lot and I especially liked the way that you had the father reveal the truth in the end. I think it would be really cool if you included some type of family history or something along those lines that would show how this family came to be so conflicted. Overall, though, I really enjoyed your piece. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting story! I am curious, why does the stepmother hate that the two kids are such good friends? Perhaps there is some sort of meaningful background as to why she does not want them to spend time with each other. Or maybe she is simply unkind and doesn't want to see them enjoying each other's company!
ReplyDeleteIn the third paragraph, there were a couple small things that I noticed. By "wrenched," did you mean "wretched?" And by "still," did you mean "steal?"
Also, I'm glad that you changed the ending so that nobody ends up dying. It makes for an interesting conclusion, however, because there seems to be no sudden climax of the story!