{{Short description|Japanese gunki monogatari ("war-tale")}} {{Italic title}} {{More citations needed|date=August 2016}} thumb|Cover of the English translation The {{nihongo|'''''Gikeiki'''''|義経記}} or '''''Chronicle of Yoshitsune''''' is a Japanese gunki monogatari ("war-tale") that focuses on the legends of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and his followers.<ref name="Morris2">{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Ivan |url=https://archive.org/details/nobilityoffailur00morr/page/93 |title=The Nobility of Failure |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |year=1975 |isbn=9780030108112 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nobilityoffailur00morr/page/93 93–100]}}</ref> It is the oldest extant collection of stories concerning Yoshitune's boyhood and fugitive years<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=Helen Craig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmee-vYb4AQC&q=gikeiki&pg=PA3 |title=Yoshitsune: A Fifteenth-Century Japanese Chronicle |date=1966 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-0270-6 |language=en}}</ref> and the single most important source for the Yoshitune legend which is written about how a legend is born and how a folk hero is shaped.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=McKinnon |first=Richard |date=1967 |title=Review of Yoshitsune: A Fifteenth Century Japanese Chronicle. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2051706 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=149–150 |doi=10.2307/2051706 |jstor=2051706 |issn=0021-9118}}</ref> It seems clearly to have intended to supplement Heike Monogatari and other tales of the war.<ref name=":0" /> Thought to have been written during the Nanboku-chō period, from the perspective of literature, it has provided inspiration to numerous Noh, kabuki and bunraku plays. Much of the image that people today have of Yoshitsune and those associated with him (Saitō no Musashibō Benkei and Shizuka Gozen, for example) is considered to have been influenced by the ''Gikeiki''. It is also thought that this work is comparable to "Soga Brothers Monogatari", a work from the same period.<ref name=":1" />
==History== The word "Gikeiki" literally means "The Record of Yoshitsune", but the ''on-yomi'' of the kanji for his name are used in reading it aloud – "yoshi" ({{lang|ja|義}}) is read as "''gi''", and "tsune" ({{lang|ja|経}}) is read "''kei''". The final part "ki" means record.
All previous texts of Gikeiki are essentially the same, there are no major variations. These fall into three categories:
# Manuscripts - These include texts with titles such as Hogan Monogatari and Yoshitsune Monogatari. # Woodblock editions - The major woodblock printings were made in 1633, 1635, 1640, 1645, 1659, 1670, 1673, 1689, 1698, 1708, and 1724. # Movable wooden print editions - There are four movable print editions ranging from 1600 to 1633.
== Critical reception == Gikeiki depicts the tragic events of Yoshitsune and is written in such a way that the people around Yoshitsune help and support him. This depiction gives the reader a sense of sympathy. Yoshitsune was built on the sacrifices and dedication of others and reigned in popular legend as a symbolic presence. It has been analyzed that the reason why Gikeiki has been incorporated into literary works more than the Tale of the Heike is because Gikeiki is a story that is empathetic, popular, and tragic.<ref>Ikuyo Ueyama. "The Charm of the Legend of Yoshitsune as seen in 'Gikeiki”. 1986.</ref> [[File:YoshikazuTengu.jpg|thumb|Yoshitsune's illustration of Mt. Kurama. Training with Tengu at Mt. Kurama]] [[File:Gojo Bridge.jpg|thumb|Illustration of the Gojo Bridge from Gikeiki. Yoshitsune and Benkei fighting on Gojo Bridge (illustrated by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka)]] [[File:Taira ghost.jpg|thumb|The ghost of the great Uraha family. Yoshitsune and his party chased by the ghosts of the Heike clan (illustrated by Kuniyoshi Utagawa)]]
==Translations== * {{cite book|last1=McCullough|first1=Helen Craig|title=Yoshitsune: a fifteenth-century Japanese chronicle|date=1966|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, Calif.|isbn=0804702705}} * {{cite book|last1=Strugat︠s︡kogo|first1=Arkadii︠a︡|title=Skazanie o Esit︠s︡unė|date=2000|publisher=Evrazii︠a︡|location=Sankt-Peterburg|isbn=5807100565}}
==See also== *''Heike Monogatari''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.j-texts.com/sheet/kgikei.html ''Gikeiki''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007143838/http://www.j-texts.com/sheet/kgikei.html |date=2011-10-07 }} (Japanese)
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Category:Japanese chronicles Category:Late Middle Japanese texts Category:Monogatari Category:14th-century history books Category:Works about Minamoto no Yoshitsune Category:Gunki monogatari