SOURCE: “The Early Stages of the Heike Monogatari,” in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. XXII, No. 1-2, 1967, pp. 65-81.

In the following essay, Tadashi provides an overview of the Heike Monogatari, examines the significance of the blind lute players who recited it, and traces the development of its written text.

The culture of the Heian period was the product of a small aristocracy which flourished in the metropolis of Heian or Kyoto, capital of a highly centralized political system. It bloomed in the soil of luxury consumption maintained by the produce of lands which the aristocracy held in every province of the country. But the power structure of this society was severely shaken by three disturbances which came in succession after the middle of the twelfth century. These were the Hōgen and Heiji wars of 1156 and 1159, the war between the Taira and Minamoto from 1177 to 1185, and the Shōky...