Founded in 1938 and published semiannually by Sophia University
Monumenta Nipponica Volume 78, Number 1 (2023)
Monumenta Nipponica Volume 78, Number 1 (2023)

Today’s TalesFujiwara-no-Nobuzane
Translated by Erin L. Brightwell

MN 78:1 (2023) pp. 35–89

War tales, historical narratives, and setsuwa collections—both Buddhist and, to a lesser degree, those concerned with court life—are today the most famous prose genres from the Kamakura period (1185–1333). Common to many of these works is a preoccupation with decline, be it the corruption of Buddhist teachings or the loss of court culture. Fujiwara no Nobuzane’s court-oriented setsuwa collection Ima monogatari (Today’s Tales), however, takes a different tack. Rather than fetishize the past or bemoan the current state of affairs, it recounts a world in which the present is inevitably different from the past, but without presenting that as cause for sorrow or alarm. As a collection that displays its author’s literacy, social connections, and sense of humor, Today’s Tales thus offers a fresh perspective on the social and cultural changes of the mid-thirteenth century.

muse.jhu.edu/article/916012