The is an early Heian period setsuwa collection. Written by Kyōkai between 787 and 824, it is Japan's oldest collection of Buddhist setsuwa. It is three volumes in length.
Title Commonly abbreviated as Nihon Ryōiki, which means "Record of Miraculous Events in Japan," the full title is . It may also be read as Nihon Reiiki. The book has been translated into English under the title Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition, but this does not represent a literal translation of the Japanese title.Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai, trans. and annotated with an introduction by Kyoto Motomochi Nakamura, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973).
Contents The work is composed of three parts contained within three volumes. Each volume begins with a preface, and the final volume contains an epilogue. 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, two of which are designated National Treasures:
Kōfuku-ji, 904 (National Treasure) Maeda estate, 1236 Raigō-in, late Heian period (National Treasure) Sanmai-in, 1214 Shinpuku-ji, Kamakura period
All manuscripts are incomplete. The full text must be reconstructed from the multiple sources, and this was only possible after the Raigō-in manuscript was discovered in 1973.
Linguistics The text contains a number of words in man'yōgana, an archaic orthography that may be used to express Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. While it is an Early Middle Japanese text, it is early enough to still preserve the distinction between ko1, ko2Yoshida (2001: 147) and pe1, pe2 prior to their merges.
Notes
References
External links 日本靈異記 text Bibliography (on modern works about the NR) Bibliography (Japanese works about)