Konjaku Monogatarishu
Konjaku Monogatarishū (今"物語集,
kon present +
jaku past +
monogatari tale +
shū collection) is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late
Heian Period (
794-
1192). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which only 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales from
India,
China, and
Japan.
The work is also commonly known by the name
"Konjaku Monogatari"; since it is an anthology rather than a single tale, however, the longer title is more accurate.
The tales contained in the work are divided according to the region in which the tales take place. The first 5 volumes contain tales from India, the next five tales from China, and the remainder tales from Japan. The subject-matter is drawn from
Buddhism and
secular folklore.
All of the tales in the collection start of with the phrase "The time is of days of old" (今ハ"
ima wa mukashi). When read in the Japanese Chinese-style pronunciation this becomes
"Konjaku", and it is from this that the collection is named.
The Buddhist tales cover a wide range of topics, both historical tales about the development, transmission, and spread of Buddhism, and
dogmatic tales which emphasis
karmic retribution.
The folkloric tales mostly depict encounters between human beings and the supernatural. The typical characters are drawn from Japanese society of the time -- nobility, warriors, monks, scholars, doctors, peasant farmers, fishermen, merchants, prostitutes, bandits, beggars. Their supernatural counterparts are
oni and
tengu.
The work is anonymous. Several theories of authorship have been put forward: one argues that the compiler was
Minamoto no Takakuni, author of
Ujidainagon Monogatari, another suggests the Buddhist monk Tobane Sōjō, a third proposes a Buddhist monk living somewhere in the vicinity of
Kyoto or
Nara during the late Heian period. So far no substantive evidence has emerged to decide the question, and no general consensus has formed.
The date of the work is also uncertain. From the events depicted in some of the tales it seems likely that it was written down at some point during the early half of the
12th century, after the year
1120.
Many of the tales which appear in the Konjaku are also found in other collections, such as ghost story collections; having passed into the common consciousness, they have been retold many times over the succeeding centuries. Modern writers too have adapted tales from the
Konjaku Monogatarishū: a famous example is
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's
In a Grove (well known in the West from
Kurosawa's film
Rashomon). Other authors who have written stories based on tales from the Konjaku include
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro and
Hori Tatsuo.
A cryptic line in Akutagawa's classic
Rashomon says 「旧記の記者の語'借りれば、『頭身の毛も太る』ように感じたのである。」 (Lit. "To borrow a phrase from the writers of the chronicles of old, he felt as if 'even the hairs on his head and body had grown thick'.") This is a reference to a line from the Konjaku Monogatarishū. The phrase means figuratively, "He was scared."/"He felt as if his hair was standing on end".
On the
Radiohead 2006 wall calendar, April 16th is marked as "Konjaku Monogatari Sunday."
