Use of cookies on this web site: Christina Courtenay collects no personally identifiable data in cookies. However, a number of social media and search engine companies place tracking cookies without our consent or co-operation. If you wish to avoid tracking, please read our cookies policy, where you will find links to resources that will help you set your browser accordingly.
Christina Courtenay Cookies Policy
Use of Cookies on this Web Site Christina Courtenay site uses only one cookie. It is a session cookie, which is deleted at the end of your browser session. It holds no personally identifiable data relating to our site visitors, other than the broad geographical location. This serves to ensure the site delivers the correct information in terms of local contacts, currency and taxes.
No personal data is ever held in a cookie on our web site.
However, a number of social media sites and search engines use practically every web site for tracking cookies and so called Interest Based Advertising. They do this without our consent or co-operation. While we make strenuous efforts to prevent them from doing this, their evolution is such that they can generate new ones faster than we can block the old ones.
We strongly recommend that if you do not want every moment of your web browsing catalogued and analysed, you should use the controls available in your browser to prevent tracking and to block third party cookies.
The only cookies that our site will place are for strictly functional purposes like identifying your broad geographical area to ensure accurate local informattion, and to retain the contents of a shopping basket if one is used.
Home
About
Published Works
Background
Blog
Travels & Research
Photo Gallery
Links
Get In Touch
Get In Touch
Data Protection
Data Protection
Christina Courtenay - Inspiration for the Scarlet Kimono
image goes here
image goes here
As I've mentioned, I had the good fortune to live in Japan for a few years and this proved to be great inspiration for my writing. I found everything about this country intriguing and started to read about its culture and history. I was especially interested in Japan's reaction to the foreign traders and missionaries that arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries, but disappointed to find that they were all men.
It started me thinking though - what if a European woman had gone there? What would have been the reaction of the Japanese to a pretty female foreigner? Perhaps they would have viewed her differently to the somewhat coarse men who had come to their shores. And then I tried to imagine what it would be like for a young 17th century English girl to arrive in a country that was so completely different to anything she was used to. If she should happen to meet a powerful and handsome Japanese samurai warlord, how could she do anything other than fall in love? And so the heroine of The Scarlet Kimono, Hannah Marston, was born.
The hero of the book, Taro Kumashiro, was based on the legendary Japanese sumo wrestler Yokozuna (champion) Chiyonofuji (aka. The Wolf). This may seem like a strange choice, but I had the pleasure of meeting him once and his smile could melt any girl's heart. Check out the photo below and see what you think! (And do please let me know if you agree with me.) For more information on Chiyonofuji, click here.
