Tale of the Heike

• Japanese: 平家物語 (Heike monogatari)

The Tale of the Heike, or Heike monogatari, is among the most famous of the gunki monogatari epic "war tales." Developed out of oral traditions, and in particular the storytelling tradition of the traveling biwa hôshi, the Tale is extant today in a number of differing written versions, ranging in dates from the 13th century through today, many of them with variant titles and varying content. In general, however, the Tale relates a dramatized, fictionalized, account of the fall of the Taira clan in the late 12th century, with much of the text describing the events of the Genpei War. A version recorded by a biwa hôshi named Kakuichi in 1371 is often taken as the "standard" version; this version was memorized and recited by generations of storytellers in traditional times, and is the basis of a number of modern translations.

References

• Helen McCullough trans., The Tale of the Heike, Stanford University Press (1990), 6-7.