The Tales of the Heike

by Shirane, Haruo

• ISBN13: 9780231138031
• ISBN10: 0231138032
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Ingram Pub Services

Summary

The Tales of the Heikeis one of the most influential works in Japanese literature and culture, remaining even today a crucial source for fiction, drama, and popular media. Originally written in the mid-thirteenth century, it features a cast of vivid characters and chronicles the epic Genpei war, a civil conflict that marked the end of the power of the Heike and changed the course of Japanese history. The Tales of the Heikefocuses on the lives of both the samurai warriors who fought for two powerful twelfth-century Japanese clans-the Heike (Taira) and the Genji (Minamoto)-and the women with whom they were intimately connected. The Tales of the Heikeprovides a dramatic window onto the emerging world of the medieval samurai and recounts in absorbing detail the chaos of the battlefield, the intrigue of the imperial court, and the gradual loss of a courtly tradition. The book is also highly religious and Buddhist in its orientation, taking up such issues as impermanence, karmic retribution, attachment, and renunciation, which dominated the Japanese imagination in the medieval period. In this new, abridged translation, Burton Watson offers a gripping rendering of the work's most memorable episodes. Particular to this translation are the introduction by Haruo Shirane, the woodblock illustrations, a glossary of characters, and an extended bibliography.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
	p. 9
The Bells of Gion Monastery	p. 9
Night Attack at Courtiers' Hall	p. 10
The Sea Bass	p. 14
Page-Boy Cuts	p. 15
Kiyomori's Flowering Fortunes	p. 15
Gio	p. 16
	p. 28
The Admonition	p. 29
Signal Fires	p. 33
The Death of the Senior Counselor	p. 34
Yasuyori's Prayer	p. 35
	p. 37
The Pardon	p. 37
The Foot-Drumming	p. 40
Ario	p. 43
The Death of Shunkan	p. 47
	p. 51
The Battle at the Bridge	p. 51
	p. 58
The Burning of Nara	p. 58
	p. 65
The Death of Kiyomori	p. 65
	p. 72
Sanemori	p. 72
Tadanori Leaves the Capital	p. 75
The Flight from Fukuhara	p. 77
	p. 82
	p. 83
The Death of Lord Kiso	p. 83
The Old Horse	p. 89
The Attack from the Cliff	p. 93
The Death of Tadanori	p. 95
The Capture of Shigehira	p. 97
The Death of Atsumori	p. 98
	p. 101
Regarding the Precepts	p. 101
Senju-no-mae	p. 105
Yokobue	p. 109
Koremori Becomes a Monk	p. 113
Koremori Drowns Himself	p. 117
	p. 122
The Death of Tsuginobu	p. 122
Nasu no Yoichi	p. 126
The Lost Bow	p. 130
The Cockfights and the Battle of Dan-no-ura	p. 133
Far-Flying Arrows	p. 137
The Drowning of the Former Emperor	p. 141
	p. 144
The Execution of Rokudai	p. 144
The Initiates' Book	p. 148
The Imperial Lady Becomes a Nun	p. 148
The Move to Ohara	p. 151
The Retired Emperor Visits Ohara	p. 153
The Six Paths of Existence	p. 160
The Death of the Imperial Lady	p. 165
Glossary of Characters	p. 171
Bibliography	p. 195
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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