Imakagami
Template:Italic title The Template:Nihongo is a Japanese rekishi-monogatari (historical tale) written in the late Heian period.<ref name=Britannica>Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten article "Imakagami". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.</ref><ref name=MyPedia>MyPedia article "Imakagami". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.</ref><ref name=Daijisen>Digital Daijisen entry "Imakagami". Shogakukan.</ref> It is also called the Template:Nihongo or the Template:Nihongo.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=MyPedia/><ref name=Daijisen/>
Date and authorshipEdit
It has been speculated that the work was compiled in<ref name=MyPedia/> or shortly after 1170;<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Daijisen/> Donald Keene, citing Isao Takehana, stated that the work was probably written between the eighth month of 1174 and the seventh month of 1175.<ref name="Keene n28">Keene 1999 : 559, citing (566, note 28) Takehana 1984 : 620 (Vol. 3).</ref> The author is uncertain,<ref name=MyPedia/><ref name=Daijisen/> but the most likely candidate is the waka poet Template:Nihongo.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name="Keene n29">Keene 1999 : 559, citing (566, note 29) Takehana 1984 : 620-622 (Vol. 3) and Matsumura 1979 : 156-161.</ref>
Structure and styleEdit
The text is in ten volumes,<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=MyPedia/><ref name=Daijisen/> and is told from the point of view of an elderly woman who is described as a granddaughter of Template:Nihongo, the narrator of the Ōkagami, and as having formerly been in the service of Murasaki Shikibu.<ref name=Britannica/> It has been suggested that the writer chose a woman as his fictional narrator where the Ōkagami's author had chosen two men that he wished to focus on more elegant "feminine" topics than military and political affairs.<ref name="Keene n30">Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 30) Takehana 1984 : 42 (Vol. 1).</ref>
The work contains 140 waka and countless references to Japanese and Chinese literature.<ref name="Keene n32">Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 32) Matsumura 1979 : 168-180.</ref>
ContentEdit
The work begins with a group of pilgrims visiting the temples of Yamato Province being approached by an elderly woman who, when asked if she lives in the region, says that she lived in the Capital for one hundred years and then in Yamashiro Province for another fifty, before moving to Yamato.<ref name="Keene 560">Keene 1999 : 560.</ref> 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.<ref name="Keene 560"/> 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 Template:Nihongo, 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 that described the casting of a new mirror on that day.<ref name="Keene n31">Keene 1999 : 560, citing (566, note 31) Takehana 1984 : 38-39 (Vol. 1).</ref>
The rest of the work describes the old lady's recollections of the past.<ref name="Keene 560"/> It describes the period of roughly 150 years<ref name=MyPedia/> from 1025 to 1170.<ref name="Keene 559">Keene 1999 : 559.</ref><ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Daijisen/> and is primarily focused<ref name=Britannica/> on an account of the imperial family and the Fujiwara and Murakami-Genji clans.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=MyPedia/>
Relationship to other worksEdit
The work is classified as one of the four "mirrors" of history along with the Ōkagami, Mizukagami and Masukagami.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Daijisen/><ref name="Keene 564">Keene 1999 : 564.</ref><ref name="Nishizawa 249">Nishizawa "Rekishi-monogatari" IN Nishizawa (ed.) 2002 : 249.</ref> It is considered to be a direct continuation of the Ōkagami.<ref name="Keene 559"/>
Although it was written during the period of rule by the Taira military clan (Japanese Wikipedia article), its focus is on waka poetry and the affairs of nobles at court.<ref name=MyPedia/>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
External linksEdit
- Full text at Nihon Bungaku Denshi Toshokan.
- Scanned copy of full text available from the National Institute of Japanese Literature.