Ebook: The Tale of Matsura: Fujiwara Teika’s Experiment in Fiction

_Matsura no Miya Monogatari_ (“The Tale of Matsura,” ca. 1190) is a classical Japanese tale or romance that belongs to the same category of courtly fiction as Murasaki Shikibu’s unsurpassed masterpiece, _Genji Monogatari_ (“The Tale of Genji,” ca. 1010). When compared with most of the best-known works of its genre, however, _Matsura no Miya Monogatari_ stands out in striking contrast: Whereas the typical monogamri is set in the Heian period (794—1185) and in the Japanese capital of that time, _Matsura no Miya Monogatari_ is set in the period before Japan’s first “permanent” capital was established at present-day Nara in 710, and most of its action takes place in China. Whereas the typical monogatari centers almost entirely on affairs of the heart between men and women, nearly half of _Matsura no Miya Monogatari_ is devoted to politics and government, including a violent succession struggle with armies marching halfway across China and back. And whereas the typical monogatari is fundamentally realistic, with only minor intrusions of the supernatural, the progress of _Matsura no Miya Monogatari_ depends on supernatural interventions almost from beginning to end.