Fudoki

The Fudoki ( Japanese 風土 記 , literally "records of air and earth", or more freely: "records of regional customs") are chronicles of the provinces of Japan and go back to ancient times (8th century). They contain information on geography, fauna, flora and agricultural production, as well as customs, history and mythology. The explanation of place names also plays an important role.

The Fudoki were compiled in the Nara period from 713 at the behest of Empress Genmei and completed over at least 20 years. The Shoku Nihongi writes about this:

「五月 甲子 畿内 七 道 諸國 郡 郷 名著 好字 其 郡 内 所生 銀 銅 彩色 草木 禽獸 魚虫 等 物 具 録 色 色 目 及 土地 沃 塉 山川 原野 名号 所由 又 古老 相傳 舊聞 異 事 載 于 史籍 言上 」

"[Wadō 6 /] 5/2 [= May 30, 713]: For Kinai and the seven highways [= all of Japan] the names of the provinces, districts and villages should be written down;" in addition the resources of the districts such as silver, copper, all kinds of plants, trees, birds, animals, fish, insects, etc., as well as the fertility of the soil, the names of the mountains, rivers, plains and fields, their origin. The stories handed down by the ancients should also be entered in a historical register. "

- Shoku Nihongi, Volume 6

The beginning of their creation coincides with the time when Kojiki and Nihonshoki were written.

At least 48 provinces were mentioned, but only the records of the Izumo province are almost completely preserved, parts of the records of the provinces of Bungo , Harima , Hitachi and Hizen have also survived. Together they are known as the "old Fudoki" ( kofudoki ). Individual passages from numerous other volumes have been preserved as quotations in various books, including Bingo , Buzen , Chikugo , Chikuzen , Higo , Hōki , Hyūga , Ise , Iyo , Mutsu , Owari , Ōsumi , Settsu , Tango and Yamashiro . Later, other texts were added under the name Fudoki.

The Fudoki by Izumo, Hyūga, Yamashiro, Tango, Ise, Settsu, Suruga, Bingo, Inaba, Ōmi and Tosa were partially translated into German by Karl Florenz . An English translation of the "old Fudoki" was created in 1997 by Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki.

literature

• Karl Florence: Japanese Mythology. Nihongi. "Age of the Gods", along with additions from other old source works . In: Supplement to the "Mittheilungen" of the German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia . Hobunsha, Tokyo 1901, p. 282–308 ( digitized in the Internet Archive - German translation).
• Michiko Y. Aoki: Records of Wind and Earth. A translation of fudoki with introduction and commentaries . The Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1997, English translation.
• Tsukamoto Tetsuzō ( 塚 本 哲 三 ): Kojiki , Norito , Fudoki ( 古 事 記 ・ 祝詞 ・ 風土 記 ) . Yūhōdō Shoten ( 有 朋 堂 書店 ), 1915, p. 383-586 ( digitized in the Internet Archive - Japanese copy, in the online viewer pages 204 to 1).

Web links

• Aoki Shūhei:  "Fudoki" . In: Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugaku-in , March 28, 2007 (English)
• Fudokipedia , a Wiki project from the University of Vienna.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Search Gateway. In: Japanese Historical Text Initiative. Retrieved on June 29, 2013 (full text and English translation of the "old Fudoki" was made in 1997 by Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki (password protected)).