Historical Tale (歴史物語)

In Japanese literature, the term "Historical Tale" refers to the works based on real historical events and written in the style of a narrative.

In principle, they were written in kana (the Japanese syllabary), and distinguished from a historical essay written in Chinese.

Because the tales follow historical events, the reader may sometimes mistake the whole tale as historical fact, however, authors often dramatized their stories or wrote with limited knowledge of actual events, therefore the events in the stories can differ greatly from historical fact (similar to war chronicles).

Major Historical Tales

Eiga monogatari (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes)

Okagami (The Great Mirror)

Imakagami (The Mirror of the Present)

Mizukagami (Water Mirror)

Masukagami (The Clear Mirror)

[Original Japanese]