Ōkagami
The Ōkagami ( Japanese. 大 鏡 , literally: “Large mirror”) is a historical tale ( 歴 史 物語 , rekishi monogatari ) from the late Heian period .
Overview
The author is unknown, but one suspects him to be part of the court aristocracy around the Minamoto family. It was created during the Insi of Tennō Shirakawa and counts with the three monogatari : Imakagami ("now mirror"), Mizukagami ("water mirror") and Masukagami ("clear mirror") to the " four mirrors " ( kagamimono ). It describes in narrative form and in the style of a biographical historiography ( 紀 伝 体 , kidentai ) historical events from 850 to 1025, i. i. from the year of the enthronement of the Montoku Tennō to the reign of the Go-Ichijō Tennō, and is also regarded as a continuation of the Eiga Monogatari . It comprises three departments with three, six and eight roles ( Maki ).
The work is based on the model of Chinese histories such as Shiji . As a narrative, it has a stylistic peculiarity even for rekishi monogatari . The events are presented in a dialogue between two legendary old men, the 190-year-old Ōyake no Yotsugi ( 大宅 世 継 ) and the 180-year-old Natsuyama no Shigeki ( 夏 山 繁 樹 ), who are talking in the temple Unrin-in ( 雲林 院 ) in Kyoto. The conversation is made entertaining by interspersed questions from a young, 20 year old warrior.
Structurally, the Ōkagami can be divided into five parts: Preface ( 序 , jo ), imperial chronicles ( 帝 紀 , teiki ), biographies ( 列 伝 , retsuden ), stories from the Fujiwara clan ( 藤原 氏 物語 , Fujiwarashi monogatari ) and stories from ancient times ( 昔 物語 , mukashi monogatari ). It tells, among other things, the brotherly quarrel between Fujiwara no Kanamichi and Fujiwara no Kaneie , how Fujiwara no Michikane led the Tennō Kazan to renounce the throne and many more intrigues at the imperial court.
annotation
- ↑ In contrast to the Eiga Monogatari , which in terms of content covers roughly the same period, but has a chronological structure.
literature
- 大 鏡 . Komazawa University, 2012,accessed November 1, 2012(digitized kagami).
- 藤田 豪 之 輔 校 註 『大 鏡』 全 巻 . 日本 文学 電子 図 書館[J-Texts], 2003,accessed on November 1, 2012(digitized version of the Ōkagami).
- は じ め て 学 ぶ 日本 文学 史 . In:榎 本 隆 詞[Enomoto Takashi] (Ed.):シ リ ー ズ ・ 日本 文学 史 A5 判 . tape 7 . ミネルヴァ書房 , Tokyo 2010, ISBN 978-4-623-04962-2 , chap. 11 歴 史 物語 , p. 119-126 (Japanese).
Web links
- Haruo Shirane (Ed.): Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings To 1600 . Columbia University Press, Tokyo 2007, ISBN 978-0-231-13696-9 (Japanese, p. 519 [accessed November 1, 2012]).
- 大 鏡 . Kyoto University Library, 2004,accessed November 1, 2012.