is a
Japanese historical tale
''Rekishi monogatari'' (歴史物語) is a category of Japanese literature defined as extended prose narrative. Structurally, the name is composed of the Japanese words ''rekishi'' (歴史), meaning history, and ''monogatari'' (物語), meaning tal ...
written around 1119 by an unknown author. It covers the period from 850 to 1025, the golden days of the
Fujiwara family's rule. It is called a , along with the records of the ''
Eiga Monogatari''.
In the tale, the writer listens to a conversation mainly led by a 190-year-old man, , who recalls the past. A 180-year-old man, , adds comments and a young
samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
puts questions to these two elders. This narrative strategy makes the story vivid and allows for the natural addition of various opinions and criticisms.
The structure is modelled after traditional Chinese history books like the ''
Records of the Grand Historian
The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
''. It consists of Preface, Stories of Emperors, Stories of Ministers, Miscellaneous Stories and Post-fin.
This and three other tales with in their titles—''
Imakagami
The is a Japanese '' rekishi-monogatari'' ( historical tale) written in the late Heian period.''Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten'' article "Imakagami". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.'' MyPedia'' article "Imakagami". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services. ...
'', ''
Mizukagami'', ''
Masukagami
is a Japanese historical tale written in the early Muromachi period believed to be between 1368 and 1376. The author is not known but is believed to be Nijō Yoshimoto. It is the last of four works of mirror series and follows most recent event ...
''—are collectively called the .
Translations
There are two translations into English:
* ''The Ōkagami: A Japanese Historical Tale'', translated by
Joseph K. Yamagiwa, with a foreword by
Edwin O. Reischauer, London: Allen & Unwin, 1967. 488 pp. Reprint
Tuttle 1997
* ''Ōkagami, The Great Mirror: Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1027) and His Times – A Study and Translation'', by Helen Craig McCullough, Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
, 1980. .
[Delmer M. Brown ''The Cambridge History of Japan'' Volume 1 1993 - Page 535 "As Helen McCullough noted in the introduction to her translation of the Okagami, the authors of Heian period tales distinguished between personal qualities that had a life-affirming Japanese character — identified with such words as tamashii ..."]
See also
*
Japanese Historical Text Initiative
* ''
Azuma Kagami''
References
External links
J－Texts (日本文学電子図書館)Online texts of the mirror books
*Manuscript scans at
Waseda University Library6 volumes(unknown date)
(8 volumes, Kume Motobume)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Mirror, The
Late Old Japanese texts
Heian period in literature
Monogatari
12th-century Japanese books
History books of the Heian Period