A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). For the years around 1200 it gives an insider's narrative of the Kenkyu purge of 1196, Go-Toba's court, Yoritomo's death and the troubles of Yoriie's succession, the regent Konoe Motomichi and the court's Buddhist politics, with judgements on the men involved. It is the most intelligent contemporary analysis of Japanese politics in 1200, and it is openly partisan for the Kujo and for cooperation with Kamakura.
About this source
- Title
- Gukansho (愚管抄)
- Author
- Jien (慈円)
- Author's dates
- 1155 to 1225
- Written
- about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223
- Language
- Japanese
- Covers
- the imperial line from Jinmu to Juntoku, with a detailed narrative from the twelfth century to 1219
- Kind
- History
Brown and Ishida's translation is under copyright and not linked. The Nihon koten bungaku taikei edition (Iwanami, 1967) is the modern text; the 1901 Kokushi taikei scan is the free one.
Where to read it
Editions
Translations
- D. M. Brown and I. Ishida, The Future and the Past: A Translation and Study of the Gukansho (University of California Press, 1979), English (not freely online)