Of Nightingales That Weep Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. The award is named after the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity. Set during the Genpei War, the two rival Japanese clans, the Genji and Heike, are constantly battling for the support of the Senior Cloistered Emperor and the power to rule Japan. Takiko is a beautiful girl who can talentedly play the koto, a thirteen-stringed instrument. She is only eleven years old
Birds in Chinese mythology a Three-legged crow. The Qingniao is associated with the Queen Mother of the West, bearing her messages or bringing her food (Yang 2005, 219 and Christie 1968, 78). Some birds feature as part of visions of the mythological geography of China. According to the "Shanhaijing" and it's commentaries, the Bifang can be found on Mount Zhang'e and/or east of the Feathered People (Youmin) and west of the Blue River (Strassberg 2002, 110 and 163) Certain birds in mythology transport deities, immortals, or others. One example is the Crane in Chinese mythology. Other birds include the Bi Fang bird, a one-legged