Shikyō
Shikyō ( Japanese 四 鏡 , literally "four mirrors") is a collective name for four important works of historical stories ( 歴 史 物語 rekishi monogatari ) from the late Heian to the early Muromachi period .
The works also known as kagami-mono ( 鏡 物 ) include: the Ōkagami ( 大 鏡 , "large mirror"), Imakagami ( 今 鏡 , "now mirror"), Mizukagami ( 水鏡 , "water mirror ") and Masukagami ( 増 鏡 , "Clear Mirror").
Similar to the European Middle Ages, when many works with speculum had the Latin name for the mirror in their title, the mirror also found its way into literature in Japan. In contrast to Europe, where the mirror symbolizes self-knowledge and wisdom, the Japanese works rather reflect the historical situation in ancient Japan. The importance of the mirror in Japan can also be seen from the fact that it is one of the three imperial insignia as the “sacred mirror” ( 八 咫 の 鏡 yata no kagami ) .
A structural peculiarity of all four narratives is that historical events are presented in literary form, dispensing with a narrator, as a dialogue between two elderly interlocutors. Like other rekishi monogatari , they are written in syllabary ( katakana ) mixed with kanji . The above order corresponds to the order in which they were created. If one looks at the time periods that are the subject of the four works, the Mizukagami must be prefixed as follows: Mizukagami, Ōkagami, Imakagami and Masukagami. In particular, the Ōkagami is also explicitly referred to as a “narrative of the succession of generations” ( yotsugi ), the Masukagami as a “continued narration of the succession of generations” ( zoku yotsugi ).
Between the content of the Imakagami and the Masukagami, the historical events at the time of the two Tennō Takakura and Antoku , who lost his life in the sea battle of Dan-no-ura, are missing . These events are reported in the two roles ( Maki ) of Iyayotsugi ( 弥 世 継 ), which however does not belong to the "four mirrors".
literature
- John S. Brownlee: Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712) . 3. Edition. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Ontario 1991, ISBN 0-88920-997-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 22, 2012]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruno Lewin (Ed.): Small Lexicon of Japanology: To the cultural history of Japan . 3. Edition. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-447-03668-0 ( limited preview in the Google book search [accessed on October 22, 2012]).
- ↑ Spiegel in Japan. Japanese Consulate General Düsseldorf, March 2001, accessed October 25, 2012 .