ShikyÅ
Shikyo (Japanese四 镜, literally " Four Mirrors " ) is a collective term for four major works of historical narratives (歴 史 物语, rekishi monogatari ) from the late Heian to the early Muromachi period. Include works to as kagami - mono (镜 物) referred to: the Ōkagami (大 镜, " Large mirror " ), Imakagami (今 镜, "Now Mirror" ), Mizukagami (水镜, " water level " ) and Masukagami (増 镜, " clear mirror ").
Similar to the European Middle Ages, when many works with " speculum " led the Latin name for the mirror in the title, the level has been found in Japan in literature. In contrast to Europe, where the mirror symbolic of self-knowledge and wisdom that Japanese works reflect rather contradicts the historical situation in ancient Japan. The importance of the mirror in Japan is also evident from the fact that he called " Holy Mirror" (八咫の鏡, yata no kagami ) is one of the three imperial regalia.
A structural feature of all four stories is that historical events are presented in literary form waiving a narrator as conversation between two elderly interlocutor. Like other rekishi monogatari they are written with kanji mixed in syllabary ( katakana ). The sequence described above corresponds to the order of their creation. Considering the time periods that are the subject of the four works, the Mizukagami must be prefixed as follows: Mizukagami, Ōkagami, Imakagami and Masukagami. In particular, the Ōkagami is also explicitly as a narrative of the succession of generations ( Yotsugi ) indicating Masukagami as zoku Yotsugi ( continued story of the succession of generations ).
Between the content of Imakagami and the Masukagami the historical events are missing at the time of the two Tennō Takakura and Antoku, who lost his life at the Battle of Dan -no- ura. These events are in the two maki ( rolls) of Iyayotsugi (弥 世 継) reported that not one of the " four levels ".