, abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new invent ...

text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the

Six National Histories is a general term for Japan's Six National Histories chronicling the mythology and history of Japan from the earliest times to 887. The six histories were written at the imperial court during the 8th and 9th centuries, under order of the Emperors. ...

series. It covers the years 858–887.

Background

Following the earlier national history ''

Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Montoku Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 879, it is the fifth text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 850-858, the years of reign of the 55th Japanese sovereign, E ...

'' (879),

Emperor Uda was the 59th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 宇多天皇 (59)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Uda's reign spanned the years from 887 through 897. Traditional narrative Name and legacy Befo ...

ordered the compilation of the years since then. It was compiled by

Fujiwara no Tokihira was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician during the Heian period.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Fujiwara no Tokihira" in ; Brinkley, Frank ''et al.'' (1915). Career Tokihira was a minister under Emperor Daigo. * 891 ('' Kanpyō ...

Sugawara no Michizane was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian Period of Japan. He is regarded as an excellent poet, particularly in Kanshi poetry, and is today revered in Shinto as the god of learning, . In the poem anthology ''Hyakunin Isshu'', he is known ...

Ōkura no Yoshiyuki Okura may refer to: * Okura Hotels, an international chain headquartered in Japan * Okura River in New Zealand * Okura, New Zealand, a village * Ōkura school of traditional Japanese comic theater * Okura, Yamagata, a village in Japan * the Ja ...

, and Mimune no Masahira. The text was completed in 901.

Written in

Kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. A ...

-style and contained within fifty volumes, the contents cover a span of thirty years from 858 to 887 corresponding to three imperial reigns: Seiwa, Yōzei, and Kōkō. It contains many imperial edicts and is more detailed compared to the earlier texts. Particularly famous is a description of

Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and ''waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He is a ...

.Nihon Koten Bungaku Jiten (2007:155) Parts of volumes 15, 19, and 48 are incomplete. Also described is an earthquake in July 869 and a tsunami that flooded the plains of northeast Japan: “The sea soon rushed into the villages and towns, overwhelming a few hundred miles of land along the coast. There was scarcely any time for escape, though there were boats and the high ground just before them. In this way about 1,000 people were killed.” These were the same plains that were submerged in the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, according to one account. "Analysis of sediments left by the 869 tsunami led to an estimate that the earthquake had a magnitude of 8.3."Chang, Kenneth
"Blindsided by Ferocity Unleashed by a Fault"
''The New York Times, web p. 2, March 21, 2011 (March 22, 2011 p. D1 NY ed.). Retrieved 2011-03-21.

Final National History

''Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku'' is the final text in the ''Six National Histories'' series. In 936, a national history bureau (撰国史所) was established to maintain the existing national histories as well as to continue with their compilation. A new text, ''

Shinkokushi ''Shinkokushi'' (新国史) is a Japanese historical work compiled by the early- Heian scholar . It categorizes and chronologizes the events listed in the ''Six National Histories is a general term for Japan's Six National Histories chronicling ...

'', was begun. However, it remained in draft form and was never completed. The declining power of the

Ritsuryō , , is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei" (律令制). ''Kyaku'' (格) are amendments of Ritsuryō, ''Shiki'' (� ...

institution is cited as a cause.

Notes

References

External links

Text of the ''Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku''
(Japanese) Late Old Japanese texts 10th-century history books History books about Japan 9th century in Japan Sugawara no Michizane 10th-century Japanese books History books of the Heian Period {{Japan-hist-stub

Background

Contents

Final National History

See also

Notes

References

External links