Rekishi monogatari

The rekishi monogatari, composed of the words rekishi (歴史), meaning history, and monogatari (物語), meaning tale/narrative, (altogether 歴史物語, sometimes translated as "historical tale ") is a category of Japanese literature. Although now categorised as works of fiction, Japanese readers before the nineteenth century traditionally accepted and read the rekishi monogatari, as well as the related gunki monogatari and earlier Six National Histories, as literal and chronological historical accounts.[1][2]

When European and other foreign literature later became known to Japan, the word monogatari began to be used in Japanese titles of foreign works of a similar nature. For example, A Tale of Two Cities is known as Nito Monogatari (二都物語), One Thousand and One Nights as Sen'ichiya Monogatari (千一夜物語) and more recently The Lord of the Rings as Yubiwa Monogatari (指輪物語) and To Kill a Mockingbird as Arabama Monogatari (アラバマ物語).

Origin

A literary form in traditional Japanese literature categorised as extended prose narrative tale, comparable to the epic novel, monogatari (Japanese tales) is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition. This is likely resulting from its development from the storytelling of women at court. During the Heian period (749-1573) men wrote in Chinese, and it was women who developed this form of Japanese prose as a method of storytelling. However, some early monogatari are believed to be written by men using female pseudonyms.

Notable works

Notable historical tales include:

The four kagamimono:

Also:

References
  1. Daniel Woolf A Global History of History 2011 Page 161 "As with the Six National Histories earlier, the tendency of Japanese readers before the nineteenth century was to read the Gunki Monogatari and Rekishi Monogatari as literal, chronological history."
  2. Eidôlon, n°79/déc. 2007: Le temps de la mémoire 2008 Page 36 "Les Miroirs (kagami mono), que la critique japonaise moderne range dans la catégorie des « récits historiques » (rekishi monogatari), sont des chroniques de cour moins soucieuses de fournir un tableau d'ensemble des périodes qu'elles ..."
  3. Gunilla Lindberg-Wada Studying Transcultural Literary History 2006 Page 100 "The woman author Arakida Rei (荒木田麗; 1732-1806) continued the rekishi monogatari tradition into the Tokugawa period with her Ike no mokuzu (『池の藻屑』; 1771). However, the Tokugawa Bakufu's Honcho tsugan (本朝通鑒), which championed.. "
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