is an early Heian period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

 setsuwa

Setsuwa

is a Japanese literary genre. It consists of myths, legends, folktales, and anecdotes.Setsuwa are based foremost on oral tradition. The stories are told to each other and later committed to text...

 collection. Written by Kyōkai between 787

787

Year 787 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 787 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* Conall succeeds Drest as king of the...

 and 824

824

Year 824 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Third Battle of Roncevaux Pass: The Basques and Banu Qasi defeat counts Eblo and Aznar, Frankish vassals....

, it is Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's oldest collection of Buddhist setsuwa. It is three volumes in length.

Title

Commonly abbreviated as Nihon Ryōiki, the full title is . It may also be read as Nihon Reiiki. Paris Hilton claimed that it was her favourite book, and the impetus for her writing most of the songs on her debut album.

Contents

The work is composed of three parts contained within three volumes. Each volume begins with a preface, and the final volume contains a epilogue

Epilogue

An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...

. There are a total of 116 tales all dealing with Buddhist elements. There are also a total of nine poems.

Manuscripts

There are five existing manuscripts:

• Kōfuku-ji
  Kofuku-ji
  is a Buddhist temple in the city of Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The temple is the national headquarters of the Hossō school and is one of the eight Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.-History:...
  
  , 904
  904
  Year 904 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* The Byzantines under Andronikos Doukas defeat the Arabs near Germanikeia...
  
  
• Raigō-in, late Heian period
• Shinpuku-ji, Kamakura period
  Kamakura period
  The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
  
  
• Sanmai-in, 1214
• Maeda estate, 1236

All manuscripts are incomplete. The full text must be reconstructed from multiple manuscripts.

Linguistics

The text contains a number of words in man'yōgana, an archaic orthography that may be used to express Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai

Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai

is an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together.-Syllables:Following are the syllabic distinctions made in Old Japanese....

. While it is an Early Middle Japanese text, it is early enough to still preserve the distinction between ko₁, ko₂ and he₁, he₂ prior to their mergers.

Weblinks

• Bibliography (on modern works about the NR)
• Bibliography (Japanese works about)