- Uji Shūi Monogatari
is a collection of Japanese tales written around the beginning of the 13th century. The author is unknown, and it may have been revised several times.
The title means "gleanings from "
Uji Dainagon Monogatari ", a book which no longer exists. TheDainagon ofUji wasMinamoto no Takakuni .The work is classified as
setsuwa literature. Following in the footsteps ofKonjaku Monogatarishū , it is the representative setsuwa work of theKamakura period .Contents
The story is made up of 197 tales spanning 15 volumes.
The preface states that it contains tales from Japan, India, and China. However, few of them are original with many stories containing common elements from earlier works such as
Konjaku Monogatarishū .Contents include a number of characters ranging from nobles to commoners and tales ranging from everyday stories to the obscure and comical. Several of the stories were used as a basis for short stories by
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa .The tales collected in "Uji Shūi Monogatari" can be split into the following major categories:
*Buddhist tales
*Social tales
*Private talesBuddhist elements are particularly strong.
Composition
It is unknown when "Uji Shūi Monogatari" was written. Many theories have been produced from literary and linguistic evidence. There is a great deal of variation, but they all generally point to the beginning of the 13th century.
References
* cite book
last = Watanabe
first = Tsunaya
coauthors = Kōichi Nishio
title = Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 27: Uji Shūi Monogatari
publisher = Iwanami Shoten
year = 1960
location =Tōkyō
id = ISBN 4-00-060027-3
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