is an officially commissioned
Japanese history text. Completed in 840, it is the third volume in the
Six National Histories. It covers the years 792–833.
Background
Following the earlier national history ''
Shoku Nihongi'' (797), in 819
Emperor Saga ordered the compilation of the years since then. Primarily edited by
Fujiwara no Otsugu,
Minamoto no Tokiwa,
Fujiwara no Yoshino and
Fujiwara no Yoshifusa, the text was completed in 840.
Much of the text was lost during the
Ōnin and Bunmei Wars in the late 15th century. Of the original 40 volumes, only ten currently exist: 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20–22, and 24.
Contents
Written in
kanbun-style, the contents covered the years 792 through 833. It spans four imperial reigns:
Kanmu,
Heizei,
Saga
Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia.
The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...
,
Junna. The text is characteristic in that it contains criticism of emperors and officials as well as poetry.
The ''Nihon Kōki'' is well known for marking the earliest observation of
cherry blossom bloom by the
Imperial Court in the year 812, which marks the origin of ''
Hanami''. As such, cherry blossom season in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
has been continuously observed for over twelve centuries, which has proven valuable in studying the timing of the seasons, as well as that of
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
.
See also
* ''
Ruijū Kokushi'', a categorized and chronological history text of the ''Six National Histories''; valuable resource in recreating the missing contents of the ''Nihon Kōki''
References
*
*
External links
Text of the ''Nihon Kōki''(Japanese)
*Manuscrip
scans Waseda University Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nihon Koki
Late Old Japanese texts
9th-century history books
Heian period in literature
History books about Japan
Nara period
840s in Japan
9th-century Japanese books
History books of the Heian Period