is the debut novel of Japanese author Hiroshi Aramata. It began circulation in the literary magazine Monthly King Novel owned by Kadokawa Shoten in 1983,文芸雑誌小說初出総覧:1981-2005. Pg. 92. and was published in 10 volumes over the course of 1985–1987.
The novel is a romanticized retelling of the 20th-century history of Tokyo from an occultist perspective,Clute, John & Grant, John. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy St. Martin's Griffin, 1999. page 515. () and can be regarded as an epic work of historical fiction, dark fantasy and science fiction.
The work is widely recognized as the first mainstream novel to popularize onmyōdō and feng shui mythology in modern Japanese fiction.Reider, Noriko T. Japanese Demon Lore: Oni from Ancient Times to the Present. Utah State University Press, 2010. ()Kazuhiko, Komatsu. "Seimei jinja" 28-61Yumemakura, Baku. "Shichinin no Abe no Seimei". 七人の安倍晴明 Bunshun Bunko, November 10, 2001. 246. ()Flanagan Sean. "Teito Monogatari in Translation" Senior Thesis. 2019 It was a bestseller with over 5 million copies sold in Japan alone.Kadokawa Shoten Press Release for SHIN TEITO MONOGATARI It won the 1987 Nihon SF Taisho Award, inspired several adaptations as well as a long running literary franchise. Likewise its influence can still be felt in many later works.Harper, Jim. Flowers from Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film. Noir Publishing. ()
Overview The work is a re-imagining of the 20th century of Tokyo as influenced by the occult. Most of the subject matter builds upon references to classic Japanese and Chinese folklore, although the centerpiece of the mythology is the legend of Taira no Masakado, a 10th-century warlord and ferocious onryo who was placated into a guardian kami through centuries of worship.
The plot features many characters, both historical and fictional. Most of the narrative revolves around the cryptohistorical actions of Yasunori Katō, a mysterious former lieutenant of the Imperial Japanese Army who is himself a vengeful oni; a descendant of the people who rebelled against the Japanese Empire in ancient times. With an incredible knowledge of the supernatural and allies in China, Korea and Taiwan; Katō dedicates his life to crippling Tokyo, the seat of power of the modern Japanese Empire. His ruinous ambitions bring him into conflict with some of 20th century Japan's greatest minds including industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa, onmyoji Abe no Seimei's descendant Yasumasa Hirai, authors Koda Rohan and Izumi Kyoka; physicist Torahiko Terada, and author Yukio Mishima. The resulting conflict, involving science, magic and politics; spans 90 years of Japan's history.
The story begins near the end of the Meiji period and ranges through the rest of the century. It reinvents major events such as the Great Kantō earthquake, the founding of Japan's first subway, the February 26 Incident, the firebombing raids, the signing of the 1960 US Security Pact, and the ritual suicide of Yukio Mishima. The narrative finally reaches its climax in 1998, the 73rd year of a fictional Shōwa period.
List of characters The historical characters who play primary or supporting roles in the story include:
Taira no Masakado Tachibana no Hayanari Aterui Tōyama Kagemoto Hirata Atsutane Hijikata Toshizō Ichimura Tetsunosuke Enomoto Takeaki Edward and Henry Schnell Prince Sawara Sugawara no Michizane Thomas Blakiston Kōda Rohan Satō Nobuhiro Joseph Needham Mori Ōgai Torahiko Terada Hantaro Nagaoka Karl Haushofer Shoma Morita Makoto Nishimura Gakutensoku Shibusawa Eiichi Kyōka Izumi Akiko Yosano Masatoshi Ōkōchi Noritsugu Hayakawa Wajiro Kon Goto Shinpei Korekiyo Takahashi Kanji Nakajima Ikki Kita Puyi Kanji Ishiwara Hideki Tojo Ōtani Kōzui Franklin D. Roosevelt Shūmei Ōkawa Masahiko Amakasu Hisaya Morishige Yukio Mishima George Gurdjieff Fusako Shigenobu Kadokawa Gen'yoshi Haruki Kadokawa
Volumes The tenth volume of the novel, published in 1987, was originally intended to be the final volume. However, when the novel was republished in 1987–1989, additional eleventh and twelfth volumes were also written to supplement more of the story around 1945, the end of World War II. When the novel was republished in 1995, volumes 11 and 12 were inserted in the chronologically appropriate spot between volumes 5 and 6.
Vol. 1: Vol. 2: Vol. 3: Vol. 4: Vol. 5: Vol. 6: Vol. 7: Vol. 8: Vol. 9: Vol. 10: Vol. 11: Vol. 12:
List of publications Gekkan Shosetsu-o serialized version. 1983-1985. Cover art by Takahiko Akiyama 10 volumes, 1985–1987, cover art by Suehiro Maruo 12 volumes, 1987–1989, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano 6 volumes, 1995, cover art by Shou Tajima (this is the edition currently in print)
Concept and creation The novel originally served as a minor side project for Hiroshi Aramata who, at the time, was focused on gathering materials for an upcoming natural history book he planned to publish. He was asked by the editor in chief of Kadokawa Shoten, Hiroshi Morinaga, to produce a fantasy themed work for their periodical Monthly King Novel. At that time, Aramata had never written a fictional novel before, however Morinaga felt that Aramata's huge body of knowledge and diversity of interests made him an ideal candidate for novel writing.荒俣宏 『荒俣宏の学生時代「一生、友達がなくて死んでいく」』Shuunkan Asahi 週刊朝日, August 3 2012Flanagan Sean. "Teito Monogatari in Translation" Senior Thesis. 2019
The initial idea for the story came from Aramata's research into the legend of Taira no Masakado. Aramata was fascinated by the legacy of his deification and its continuing impact on the spiritual lives of modern Japanese citizens. In a 2011 interview with Fuji TV, Aramata described how Masakado's shrine occupies some of the richest land in Tokyo and that many companies located around his head mound pay it the greatest respect. He had felt the subject of Masakado's legacy was a wonderful opportunity to explore how spirituality crosses over with the values of the modern secular world. Simultaneously, Aramata had also been researching the history of geomancy in Japan. He felt that he could combine the two subjects--the legacy of Masakado's spirit and the geomantic roots of Tokyo--into an original and compelling story. Fuji Terebi フジテレビ 『荒俣宏の学生時代「一生、友達がなくて死んでいく」』Fuji Terebi フジテレビ, February 2011Flanagan Sean. "Teito Monogatari in Translation" Senior Thesis. 2019 In addition, while participating in the creation of Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, Hiroshi Aramata was also inspired by discussions with anthropologist Komatsu Kazuhiko about sources of the strange and the mysterious in Japanese folklore.Reider, Noriko T. Japanese Demon Lore: Oni from Ancient Times to the Present. Utah State University Press, 2010. 117. ()
Scholarly interest in onmyodo had been gestating in Japan since the 1950's, however in the early 1980's the subject was still esoteric and had not gained mainstream attention. In 1981, scholar Murayama Shinichi published a landmark history of the subject entitled Nihon Onmyodoshi Sosetsu. Shinichi's work, along with other works dealing with oriental occultism, inspired Aramata to heavily incorporate the subject into his novel. In addition the book Meiji No Tokyo Keikaku by Terunobu Fujimori, describing the history of urban planning in Tokyo during the Meiji Era, also served as an inspiration.Hayashi, Makoto et al.; "Onmyodo in Japanese History"; Japanese Journal of Religious StudiesAramata, Hiroshi 荒俣宏. “Makai, chūgoku, kojōruri, soshite ōken: Teito monogatari wo meisō suru tame” 魔界-中国-古浄瑠璃、そして王権 . 「帝都物語」を迷走するため. Asahi jānaru 朝日ジャーナル 30, no. 16 (April 1988): 14Flanagan Sean. "Teito Monogatari in Translation" Senior Thesis. 2019
Publication The work was originally serialized in 13 installments in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Gekkan Shosetsu-o from the first issue in 1983 to the 13th issue in 1984.オデッサの階段 #18 荒俣宏のファンタジー フジテレビ公式サイト内 It was then republished in paperback format from Kadokawa Novels from 1985-1987.帝都物語〈9 喪神篇〉 (カドカワノベルズ) BOOKSデータベースより The work was an immediate bestseller. Aramata earned about 150 million yen in royalties from the work.吉田豪、掟ポルシェ『電池以下』アスペクト、2012年、p.142。荒俣宏インタビュー。 However these earnings were quickly spent on the acquisition of rare books for his private library.荒俣宏「あっという間になくなった」 1億超える印税の驚くべき使い道週刊朝日 2012年8月3日号
Legacy Teito Monogatari, the novel and its various adaptations, is widely credited with being the first fictional work to popularize topics such as onmyodo, Feng shui, shikigami, kodoku, shijie, gohō dōji and Kimon Tonkou in Japanese popular art. Subsequently, these topics would all become recurrent tropes in mainstream Japanese fantasy fiction, including a vast number of manga, anime and video games known throughout the international scene.Japanese Review of TEITO MONOGATARI (1988). Retrieved on 2012-8-07.Yumemakura, Baku. "Shichinin no Abe no Seimei". 七人の安倍晴明 Bunshun Bunko, November 10, 2001. 246. () Science fiction author Baku Yumemakura was inspired by the work to begin writing his Onmyoji novel series; a best-selling franchise which became the popular face of onmyodo enthusiasm across Japan and the international scene.Rechio, Devin T. "Constructing Abe no Seimei: Integrating Genre and Disparate Narratives in Yumemakura Baku's Onmyoji". University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Masters Theses. May 2014 Other similarly themed franchises which emerged in the wake of the novel's success include Clamp's Tokyo Babylon manga series, and Natsuhiko Kyogoku's Kyōgokudō (京極堂) series. The novel's success overlapped with and helped fuel real life subcultural interest in these topics, most notably onmyodo and feng shui.Shūkyō Kenkyūkai, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Volume 74, Issues 324-327, Pg. 273, University of Michigan, 2000
Mikako Iwatake cites Teito Monogatari as a work that reminded a generation of general Japanese readers about Tokyo's former status as an imperial capital.Iwatake, Mikako, "From a Shogunal City to a Life City" in Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo (ed. Paul Waley). Routledge, January 6, 2003. page 245. () Dr. Noriko T. Reider, associate professor of Japanese Studies at Miami University, credits Teito Monogatari with raising "the oni's status and popularity greatly in modern times".Reider, Noriko T. "Oni and Japanese Identity". Utah State University Press, 2010. In 2009 Higashi Masao, a notable authority in the field of Japanese weird fiction, wrote an article entitled "The Impact of Teito Monogatari" where he discussed the novel's influence on contemporary Japanese supernatural fiction.Masao, Higashi. "A Mammoth Story which Leads Reality: The Impact of TEITO MONOGATARI", KWAI Magazine, vol. 23 Akira Okawada, a specialist in Japanese science fiction literature, wrote a similar article in 2010 discussing the work's influence on that respective genre.Okawada, Akira. "The Comprehensive Tokyo Related Science Fiction", S-F Magazine, September 2010, Hayakawa Shoubo
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