The Great Mirror or Ōkagami (大鏡) is a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 historical tale

Historical tale

Historical tale is a category of Japanese literature.Notable historical tales are:*A Tale of Flowering Fortunes *The Great Mirror *Today's Mirror *The Water Mirror...

 by an unknown author that covers from 850 to 1025, the golden days of Fujiwara family's rule. It is said to be a succession to records of Eiga Monogatari

Eiga monogatari

is a Japanese monogatari, or epic, which relates events in the life of courtier Fujiwara no Michinaga. It is believed to have been written by a number of authors, over the course of roughly a century, from 1028 to 1107....

.

In the tale, the writer listened to the conversation mainly led by a 190-year-old man Ōyake no Yotsugi (大宅世継), who recalled the past. A 180-year old man Natsuyama no Shigeki (夏山繁樹) added comments and a young samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 put questions to the two men. This style makes the story vivid and allows to add various opinions and criticisms naturally.

The structure is modelled after traditional Chinese history books like the Records of the Grand Historian

Records of the Grand Historian

The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...

. It consists of Preface, Stories of Emperors, Stories of Ministers, Miscellaneous Stories and Post-fin.

This and three other tales with mirror (鏡) in their titles are collectively called four mirrors (四鏡).

See also

• Imakagami
  Imakagami
  is a Japanese historical tale written in the late Heian period. According to its preface, it was written in the reign of Emperor Takakura and 2nd year of Kaō or 1170. The book is credited to Fujiwara Tametsune. It is the second of the four mirror series and is about years following...
  
  
• Mizukagami
• Masukagami
  Masukagami
  is a Japanese historical tale written in the early Muromachi period believed to be between 1368 to 1376. The author is not known but is believed to be Nijō Yoshimoto. It is the last of four works of mirror series and follow most recent events....
  
  
• Azuma Kagami
  Azuma Kagami
  The , or "mirror of the east", is a Japanese medieval text that chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō and his return to Kyoto in 1266...
  
  , a much later work outside the 4 mirrors.

External links

• J－Texts (日本文学電子図書館) Online texts of the mirror books
• Manuscript scans at Waseda University Library
  Waseda University Library
  The library of Waseda University is one of the largest libraries in Japan. It was established in 1882, and currently holds some 4.5 million volumes and 46,000 serials.-History:...
  
  : 6 volumes (unknown date), 1891 (8 volumes, Kume Motobume)