The is a Japanese ''

rekishi-monogatari ''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 tale ...

'' ( historical tale) written in the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

.''Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten'' article "Imakagami". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.'' MyPedia'' article "Imakagami". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.''Digital Daijisen'' entry "Imakagami". Shogakukan. It is also called the or the .

Date and authorship

It has been speculated that the work was compiled in or shortly after 1170;

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

, citing Isao Takehana, stated that the work was probably written between the eighth month of 1174 and the seventh month of 1175.Keene 1999 : 559, citing (566, note 28) Takehana 1984 : 620 (Vol. 3). The author is uncertain, but the most likely candidate is the ''waka'' poet .Keene 1999 : 559, citing (566, note 29) Takehana 1984 : 620-622 (Vol. 3) and Matsumura 1979 : 156-161.

Structure and style

The text is in ten volumes, and is told from the point of view of an elderly woman who is described as a granddaughter of , the narrator of the ''

Ōkagami ''Ōkagami'' () is a Japanese historical tale written in around 1119 by an unknown author. It covers the period 850 to 1025, the golden days of the Fujiwara family's rule. It is said to be a successor (世継物語, ''yotsugi monogatari'') with the ...

'', and as having formerly been in the service of

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...

. It has been suggested that the writer chose a woman as his fictional narrator where the ''Ōkagamis author had chosen two men that he wished to focus on more elegant "feminine" topics than military and political affairs.Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 30) Takehana 1984 : 42 (Vol. 1). The work contains 140 ''waka'' and countless references to Japanese and Chinese literature.Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 32) Matsumura 1979 : 168-180.

Content

The work begins with a group of pilgrims visiting the temples of

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, the ...

being approached by an elderly woman who, when asked if she lives in the region, says that she lived in

the Capital ''The Capital'' (also known as ''Capital Gazette'' as its online nameplate and informally), the Sunday edition is called ''The Sunday Capital'', is a daily newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications in Annapolis, Maryland, to serve ...

for one hundred years and then in

Yamashiro Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai. It overlaps the southern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture on Honshū. Aliases include , the rare , and . It is classified as an upper province in the ''Engishiki''. Yamashiro Province included Kyoto its ...

for another fifty, before moving to Yamato.Keene 1999 : 560. The listeners are astonished at her great age, but she humbly replies by listing several others in China and Japan who had supposedly lived to great age, including her grandfather Yotsugi. She says her name is Ayame (iris), which was given to her because of her birth on the fifth day of the fifth month, the same day as the , although she had also been given the nickname Imakagami (the new mirror) by her mistress Murasaki Shikibu, in reference to a poem by

Bai Juyi Bai Juyi (also Bo Juyi or Po Chü-i; ; 772–846), courtesy name Letian (樂天), was a renowned Chinese poet and Tang dynasty government official. Many of his poems concern his career or observations made about everyday life, including as g ...

that described the casting of a new mirror on that day.Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 31) Takehana 1984 : 38-39 (Vol. 1). The rest of the work describes the old lady's recollections of the past. It describes the period of roughly 150 years from 1025 to 1170. and is primarily focused on an account of the

imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

and the

Fujiwara Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include: ; Families * The Fujiwara clan and its members ** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...

and Murakami-Genji clans.

Relationship to other works

The work is classified as one of the four "mirrors" of history along with the ''Ōkagami'', ''

Mizukagami is a Japanese '' rekishi monogatari''. It is believed to have been written in the early Kamakura period around 1195. It is widely credited to Nakayama Tadachika but the actual writer is unknown. It is the third book of the four mirror series. ...

'' and ''

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.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric ''et al.'' (2005). "''Masu-kagami''" i ''Japan Enc ...

''.Keene 1999 : 564.Nishizawa "Rekishi-monogatari" ''IN'' Nishizawa (ed.) 2002 : 249. It is considered to be a direct continuation of the ''Ōkagami''. Although it was written during the period of rule by the

Taira The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided i ...

military clan ( Japanese Wikipedia article), its focus is on ''waka'' poetry and the affairs of nobles at court.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Full text
at Nihon Bungaku Denshi Toshokan.
Scanned copy of full text
available from the

National Institute of Japanese Literature The , or NIJL, was established in May 1972. Its primary purpose is to preserve manuscripts and books relating to the study of Japanese literature. Original texts and microfilms Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically ei ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Imakagami 1170s books 1170s in Japan Heian period in literature Late Old Japanese texts Monogatari 12th-century Japanese books History books of the Heian Period