Hello, it's Watase. Well,
this is the customary Free Talk and I've been told there are complaints
that my "handwriting is obscene." I'm sorry about my scribbling. I hate
to write. But it's embarrassing to be told "it's painful to look at" so
this time I'll take the trouble to write more carefully. Wh-where?...
Now on to "Fushigi Yuugi." It started when I
was 18, just before my debut. I was researching a thick book called "The
Great Dictionary of Buddhist Philosophy" for another story I was thinking
of when "Tamahome" caught my eye. When I looked it up, it read "One of
the 7 Suzaku constellations belonging to the south. The waning light of
Tamahome is an omen of poor crops." As soon as I read that bit about the
7 constellations, I had the idea for the story. At that time I had the
characters of Tamahome and Hotohori but still didn't have Miaka. (Actually
I wanted Tamahome to be written with the characters Oni and Star but that
would have made Hotohori written as Star Star.) (Sweat drop)If the plot
had come about at the same time as "Shishunki Miman 1" (1990), I would
have discarded this in favor of "Shishunki. "
Though I did reference on China for this story,
this is not truly Chinese. So don't take it for the truth...As if you would.
(Sweat drop) (The Emperor calling himself by the imperial "we" would have
been too funny so I didn't do it.) So as not to write something I knew
nothing about, I took it upon myself to check out over a dozen books. And
then I began working on the story.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko