The ''Dai Nihonshi'' (大日本史), literally ''History of Great Japan'', is a book on the history of Japan. It was begun in the 17th century, during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, by

Tokugawa Mitsukuni , also known as , was a Japanese daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the sec ...

, the head of the Mito branch of the

Tokugawa family The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

. After his death, work was continued by the Mito branch until its completion in the Meiji era.

Content

The work starts with

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' and ''Kojiki''. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Emperor Go-Komatsu was the 100th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後小松天皇 (100) retrieved 2013-8-28. and the sixth and final Emperor of the Northern Court. He is officially cons ...

after the merging of the Southern Court and

Northern Court The , also known as the Ashikaga Pretenders or Northern Pretenders, were a set of six pretenders to the throne of Japan during the Nanboku-chō period from 1336 through 1392. The present Imperial House of Japan is descended from the Northern Cou ...

in 1392. The fundamental part, that is, the narration of historical events, occupies the first 73 volumes, the rest constitutes a supplement of which 170 volumes are biographies, 126 descriptions and 28 tables, a total of 397. The whole work comprises 397 volumenes and 5 volumenes of index, total 402 volumes printed.

Context

The book is one of the major scholarly works of the Edo period, and laid the foundation of the Mito school (Mitogaku) and

Kokugaku ''Kokugaku'' ( ja, 國學, label= Kyūjitai, ja, 国学, label=Shinjitai; literally "national study") was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars worked to r ...

Aizawa Seishisai , born , was a Japanese samurai (retainer of the Mito Domain) and a nationalist thinker of the Mito school during the late shogunate period. In 1799 he became involved in the compilation of the ''Dai Nihon-shi'' (Great History of Japan) being un ...

a Japanese nationalist thinker from Mito school, also worked on the play. It is heavily influenced by

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...

, especially the later

Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in t ...

under

Zhu Xi Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...

. However, instead of focusing on the Chinese classics like other Confucian schools, it centered on the Japanese classics and Japan as a land ruled by the ''tennō'' (尊王論 ''sonnōron''). This school of thought led to the Sonnō jōi movement, and eventually the

Mito Rebellion The , also called the Kantō Insurrection or the , was a civil war that occurred in the area of Mito Domain in Japan between May 1864 and January 1865. It involved an uprising and terrorist actions against the central power of the Shogunate in fav ...

against the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

during the

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

period.

Finished the collection

The project took about 250 years to complete, and was officially published in 1906.

Notes

External links

大日本史 - MIKO.ORG大日本史
{{Authority control Edo-period works * Confucianism in Japan Mito Domain Edo-period history books