The Tales of the Heike

by Burton Watson

  Masukagami (The Clear Mirror).

  An account of Japanese history beginning at the end of the Genpei war in 1185 and covering the period up to the fall of Kamakura in 1333. It was compiled in the late fourteenth century. For a translation, see George W. Perkins, The Clear Mirror: A Chronicle of the Japanese Court During the Kamakura Period (1185–1333) (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1998).

  Meigetsuki (Clear Moon Chronicle).

  The diary of the poet and critic Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241). The diary begins with the Second Month of 1180 and continues until the Twelfth Month of 1236. A much quoted phrase is Teika’s comment when news of Yoritomo’s revolt reached the capital in the Ninth Month of 1180: “The campaign of the ‘red flags’ [Taira] against the ‘barbarians’ [Genji] is no concern of mine.”

  Mōko shūrai [ekotoba] (Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions).

  An illustrated account of the Mongol invasions in the late thirteenth century. For a translation, with an interpretative essay and reproductions, see Thomas D. Conlan, In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Takezaki Suenaga’s Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan (Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 2001).

  Mutsuwaki.

  An early battle chronicle. See Helen Craig McCullough, “A Tale of Mutsu,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964–1965): 178–211.

  Sankaiki.

  The diary of Nakayama Tadachika. The earliest entry is dated 1151; the last, 1194. Entries are missing for many months and for some entire years, but the diary is still of great value for the period covered by the Heike monogatari.

  Shōkyūki (also read Jōkyūki) (An Account of the Shōkyū Era).

  An account of a conflict in 1221. See William H. McCullough, “Shōkyū ki: An Account of the Shōkyū War of 1221,” Monumenta Nipponica 19, nos. 1–2 (1964): 163–215; 19, nos. 3–4 (1964): 420–455.

  Shōmonki (The Account of Masakado).

  A major precursor of the war tale (gunki-mono) genre. For a translation, see Judith N. Rabinovitch, Shōmonki: The Story of Masakado’s Rebellion (Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1986).

  Soga monogatari (The Tale of the Soga).

  A medieval narrative of the Soga brothers and their revenge on their father’s killer. It is set in Kamakura and the surrounding area in the period after the Genpei war. For a translation, see Thomas J. Cogan, The Tale of the Soga Brothers (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1987).

  Taiheiki (Chronicle of Great Peace).

  The principal war narrative after Heike monogatari, covering the years between 1318 and 1386, regarding the fall of the Kamakura shogunate, Emperor GoDaigo’s Kenmu restoration, and the establishment of the Northern and Southern Courts. The narrative includes references to the battles of the Genpei war, as well as to the recitation of the Heike narrative. For a translation of volumes one through twelve, see Helen Craig McCullough, The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959).

  Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness).

  A miscellany by Kenkō, in which section 226 describes the circumstances under which Kenkō believed Heike monogatari to have been written. For a translation, see Donald Keene, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967).

  Yokobue sōshi (The Tale of Yokobue).

  A Muromachi-period work giving an expanded account of the story of Tokiyori (Takiguchi novice) and Yokobue. See Yoshiko Dykstra and Yuko Kurata, “The Yokobue-sōshi: Conflicts Between Social Convention, Human Love and Religious Renunciation,” Japanese Religions 26 (2001): 117–129.

  General Studies

  Akamatsu, Toshihide. “The Prototype of the Heike-Monogatari.” In Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Congress of Orientalists, 555–556. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Harrassowitz, 1967.

  Alberizzi, Valerio Luigi. “Wakan konkōbun e buntai della lingua giapponese classica: Metodologia di analisi.” Asiatica Venetiana 5 (2000): 3–19.

  Bialock, David T. Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from The Chronicles of Japan to The Tale of the Heike. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007.

  Bialock, David T. “Heike monogatari.” In Medieval Japanese Writers, edited by Steven D. Carter, 73–84. Vol. 203 of Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999.

  Butler, Kenneth Dean, Jr. “The Heike monogatari and the Japanese Warrior Ethic.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 29 (1969): 93–108.

  Butler, Kenneth Dean, Jr. “The Textual Evolution of the Heike monogatari.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 26 (1966): 5–51.

  Ehmcke, Franziska, and Heinz-Dieter Reese, eds. Von Helden, Mönchen und schönen Frauen: Die Welt des japanischen Heike Epos. Cologne: Boehlau, 2000.

  Hasegawa, Tadashi. “The Early Stages of the Heike monogatari.” Monumenta Nipponica 22 (1967): 65–81.

  Moeshart, Herman J. “Women in the Heike monogatari.” In Women in Japanese Literature, edited by Erika G. de Poorter, 27–38. Leiden: Center for Japanese and Korean Studies, 1981.

  Morrison, Clinton D. “Context in Two Episodes from Heike monogatari.” In The Distant Isle: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature in Honor of Robert H. Brower, edited by Thomas Hare, Robert Borgen, and Sharalyn Orbaugh, 321–336. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996.

  Oyler, Elizabeth Ann. “Giō: Women and Performance in the Heike monogatari.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 64 (2004): 341–366.

  Plutschow, Herbert. Chaos and Cosmos: Ritual in Classical Japanese Literature. Leiden: Brill, 1990.

  Plutschow, Herbert. “The Placatory Nature of The Tale of the Heike: Additional Documents and Thoughts.” In Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and Transformations, edited by Amy Vladeck Heinrich, 71–80. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

  Schneider, Roland. “Pinsel, Schwert und Mönchsgewand: Das Heike monogatari als literarisches Werk.” In Von Helden, Mönchen und schönen Frauen: Die Welt des japanischen Heike Epos, edited by Franziska Ehmcke and Heinz-Dieter Reese, 11–32. Cologne: Boehlau, 2000.

  Varley, H. Paul. “Warriors as Courtiers: The Taira in Heike monogatari.” In Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and Transformations, edited by Amy Vladeck Heinrich, 53–70. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

  Watson, Michael. “Genre, Convention, Parody, and the Middle Style: Heike monogatari and Chaucer.” Poetica 44 (1995): 23–40.

  Watson, Michael. “Theories of Narrative and Their Application to the Study of Heike monogatari.” In Observing Japan from Within, edited by James Baxter, 91–122. Kyoto: Nichibunken kenkyūjō, 2004.

  Yamashita, Hiroaki. “The Structure of ‘Story-telling’ (katari) in Japanese War Tales with Special Reference to the Scene of Yoshitomo’s Last Moments.” Acta Asiatica 37 (1976): 47–69.

  Historical and Cultural Context

  Adolphson, Mikael S. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000.

  Blacker, Carmen. “The Exiled Warrior and the Hidden Village.” Folklore 95, no. 2 (1985): 139–150.

  Brown, Delmer M., and Ichirō Ishida. The Future and the Past: A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

  Brownlee, John S. Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712). Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1991.

  Conlan, Thomas. The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003.

  Farris, William Wayne. Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan’s Military, 500–1300. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.

  Friday, Karl. Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992.

  Friday, Karl. Samurai, Warfare, and the State in Early Medieval Japan. London: Ro
utledge, 2004.

  Friday, Karl. “Teeth and Claws: Provincial Warriors and the Heian Court.” Monumenta Nipponica 43, no. 2 (1988): 153–185.

  Groemer, Gerald. “The Guild of the Blind in Tokugawa Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica 56, no. 3 (2001): 349–380.

  Hurst, Cameron. “Insei.” In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 2, Heian Japan, edited by Donald H. Shively and William H. McCullough, 576–643. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  Mass, Jeffrey. “The Genpei War.” In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 3, The Middle Ages, edited by Kozo Yamamura, 47–66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  McCullough, William H., and Helen C. McCullough. A Tale of Flowering Fortunes: Annals of Japanese Aristocratic Life in the Heian Period. 2 vols. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1980.

  Minobe, Shigekatsu. “The World View of Genpei jōsuiki.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 9, nos. 2–3 (1982): 213–234.

  Ruch, Barbara. “The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan.” In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 3, The Middle Ages, edited by Kozo Yamamura, 500–543. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  Shinoda, Minoru. The Founding of the Kamakura Shogunate, 1180–1185, with Selected Translations from the Azuma Kagami. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

  Souyri, Pierre François. The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society. Translated by Käthe Roth. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

  Takeuchi, Rizō. “The Rise of the Warriors.” In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 2, Heian Japan, edited by Donald H. Shively and William H. McCullough, 644–709. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  Varley, H. Paul. Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1994.

  Musical Recitation

  De Ferranti, Hugh. “Composition and Improvisation in Satsuma biwa.” In Musica Asiatica, edited by Allan Marrett, 6:102–127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

  Komoda Haruko. Heike on ongaku: Tōdō no dentō. Tokyo: Daiichi shobō, 2003.

  An important synthesis of the history of Heike recitation and its scholarship, followed by a detailed analysis of the features of both vocal and biwa music. The CD contains a recording of performances by Imai Tsutomu, kengyō (holder of highest rank) in the Nagoya line of reciters.

  Malm, William P. Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. New ed. Tokyo: Kōdansha International, 2000.

  The CD contains four tracks of music with biwa: mōsō biwa (blind biwa monk) chant, a biwa performance by Takeyama Kōgo of the opening lines of the opening “Gion shōja” section (Heike 1:1), a performance of an excerpt from the “Atsumori” piece in the Satsuma biwa tradition (Heike 9:16), and a Chikuzen biwa performance of the “Ōgi no mato” piece (Nasu no Yoichi story of Heike 11:8).

  Ruch, Barbara. “Medieval Jongleurs and the Making of a National Literature.” In Japan in the Muromachi Age, edited by John W. Hall and Takeshi Toyoda, 279–309. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

  Rutledge, Eric. “Orality and Textual Variation in the Heike monogatari: Part One: The Phrase and Its Formulaic Nature.” In Heike biwa: Katari to ongaku, edited by Kamisangō Yūkō, 360–340. Kasukabe City: Hitsuji shobō, 1993.

  Tokita, Alison. “The Reception of the Heike monogatari as Performed Narrative: The Atsumori Episode in heikyoku, zato biwa and satsuma biwa.” Japanese Studies 23, no. 1 (2003): 59–85.

  Ueda, Makoto, ed. Literary and Art Theories in Japan. 1967. Reprint, Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1991.

  Contains an introduction to and a translation of a description of Heike recitation from Saikai yoteki shū.

  Reception in Drama

  Some thirty-three nō plays—more than one-tenth of the current repertoire—are based on Heike monogatari. Many others outside the repertoire have survived as well.

  Araki, James. The Ballad-Drama of Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.

  Contains a translation of the “Atsumori” narrative from the kōwaka-mai performance tradition.

  Brazell, Karen W. “Subversive Transformations: Atsumori and Tadanori at Suma.” In Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and Transformations, edited by Amy Vladeck Heinrich, 35–52. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

  Brazell, Karen W., ed. Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

  Contains translations of Heike-related material from the nō, kōwakamai, puppet, and kabuki traditions.

  Brazell, Karen W., ed. Twelve Plays of the Nō and Kyōgen Theater. Cornell University East Asia Papers, no. 50. Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1988.

  Contains Heike- and Gikeiki-related plays.

  Keene, Donald, ed. Twenty Plays of the Nō Theatre. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

  Nippon gakujutsu shinkōkai, ed. Japanese Noh Drama. 3 vols. Tokyo: Nippon gakujutsu shinkōkai, 1955–1959.

  Shimazaki, Chifumi. Battle Noh in Parallel Translations with an Introduction and Running Commentaries. Vol. 2 of The Noh. Tokyo: Hinoki shoten, 1987.

  Shimazaki, Chifumi. Troubled Souls from Japanese Noh Plays of the Fourth Group: Parallel Translations with Running Commentary. Cornell University East Asia Series, no. 95. Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1998.

  Shimazaki, Chifumi. Warrior Ghost Plays from the Japanese Noh Theater: Parallel Translations with Running Commentary. Cornell University East Asia Series, no. 60. Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1993.

  Shimazaki, Chifumi. Woman Noh Book 3. Vol. 3 of The Noh. Tokyo: Hinoki shoten, 1987.

  Tyler, Royall. Japanese Nō Dramas. London: Penguin, 1992.

  Tyler, Royall, trans. Granny Mountains: A Second Cycle of Nō Plays. Cornell University East Asia Series, no. 18. Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1978.

  Reception in the Visual Arts

  Collcutt, Martin. “An Illustrated Edition of the Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari) in the Gest Library Rare Books Collections.” Gest Library Journal 4, no. 1 (1991): 9–26.

  Ford, Barbara. “Tragic Heroines of the Heike monogatari and Their Representation in Japanese Screen Painting.” Orientations 28, no. 2 (1997): 40–47.

  Hutt, Graham, ed. Heike Monogatari. Vol. 4 of Japanese Book Illustration. New York: Abaris Books, 1982.

  Reproduces all illustrations from the 1656 (Meireki 2) woodblock edition of Heike monogatari.

  Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The Hogen and Heiji Battle Screens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jacksonville, Fla.: Jacksonville Art Museum, 1984.

  Sadler, A. L., trans. The Ten Foot Square Hut and Tales of the Heike: Being Two Thirteenth-Century Japanese Classics, the “Hojoki” and Selections from “The Heike Monogatari.” 1928. Reprint, Tokyo: Tuttle, 1972.

  Includes reproductions from seventeenth-century printed editions of Heike.

  Modern Reception

  Many narrative and dramatic works have been inspired by characters or episodes from Heike monogatari. Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Hanada Kiyoteru, Inoue Yasushi, Kikuchi Kan, Kinoshita Junji, Kōda Rohan, Mori Ōgai, Murō Saisei, Nagai Kafū, Nagai Michiko, Sakaguchi Ango, Setouchi Harumi, Shiba Ryō tarō, Shimamura Hōgetsu, Tayama Katai, and Yamazaki Masakazu are among the many writers since the Meiji period who based narratives or dramatic pieces on Heike episodes or characters. The steady flow of new works continues to the present. In the postwar period, many multivolume versions of the Heike story have appeared; for example:

  Hashimoto Osamu, Sōchō Heike monogatari, 8 vols. (1998–2001).

  Miyao Tomiko, Miyaobon Heike monogatari, 4 vols. (2001).

  Morimura Seiichi, Heike monogatari, 6 vols. (1998–2000).

  Yoshikawa Eiji, Shin Heike monogatari, 13 vols. (1950–1973).

  In addition, many manga (comic book) versions of Heike monogatari seem intended to both educate and entertain, combining pictures an
d dialogue with informative footnotes and quotations from the original. Manga like these bear the name of a distinguished scholar on the title page, attesting that the text and pictures have been checked for accuracy. Far freer adaptations are available as well, some with a science-fiction touch.

  Film

  The Tales of the Heike is a popular subject for television specials, drama series, and feature films, although the direct source is more often the work of a modern popularizer than any version of the original. Yoshitsune is a perennial favorite. Information about many of these films and their current availability can be found on the Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com) and similar Web sites. Examples include:

  Heike monogatari (1993–1995).

  NHK TV series with puppets, based on Yoshikawa Eiji’s version.

  Jigokumon (Gate of Hell, 1953). Directed by Kinugasa Teinosuke, with Hasegawa Kazuo as Endō Moritō, Kyō Machiko as Lady Kesa, Watanabe Isao as her husband Wataru, and Senda Koreya as Kiyomori.

  The story of why Mongaku took religious orders, based on Kikuchi Kan’s story “Kesa no otto” (Kesa’s Husband, 1923). It begins at the height of the Heiji rebellion. Jigokumon was the winner of various international film prizes, including the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (1956).

  Kaidan (1964). Directed by Kobayashi Masaki, with music by Takemitsu Tōru.

  Based on Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1892). The longest section is the final one, “Miminashi Hōichi,” about the blind acolyte who plays the biwa for the souls of the Heike who drowned at Dan-no-ura. Kaidan was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and is widely available outside Japan. English titles include Kwaidan and Ghost Stories.