Nostalgia for a Unified Realm
239
Shinmeikyō
(The Mirror of the Gods)
Author:
unknown
Date:
late fourteenth century, added to through 1434
Language:
hentai kanbun
Preface:
no
Setting:
none stated;
the implied center is Kyoto
Time covered:
the reign of Emperor Jinmu (traditionally seventh century
BCE)–the early reign of Emperor Gohanazono (1419–1470)
Just as the
Mirrors
had survived the Genpei War and the Mongol inva-
sions, they also withstood the fall of the Kamakura
bakufu
. The last of
the medieval historiographic
Mirrors
breaks off in 1434, just decades be-
fore the
Ō
nin War (1467–77) ushered Japan into roughly a century of
conflict now referred to as the Warring States period. Returning to where
chapte
r
4 left off, the first two-thirds of the fourteenth century—the time
that would pass before the appearance of the two Muromachi historio-
graphic
Mirrors
—saw substantial changes both domestically and abroad.
To the west, the fall of the Yuan (1271–1368) and establishment of the
Ming (1368–1644) meant that China was again under Chinese rule.
Within Japan, the Kamakura shogunate collapsed in 1333, to be succeeded
by the short-lived Kenmu Restoration (1333–36). The failure of the latter,
in turn, led to the dissolution of the imperial house into the competing
Northern (Kyoto) and Southern (Yoshino) Courts (1336–92), with each
championing its own imperial line. Although Ashikaga Takauji (1305–
58) was named shogun in 1338, marking the official founding of the
Ashikaga (or Muromachi)
bakufu
, this did not signal an end to instabili-
ty.
1
Further unrest followed only a short while later in the form of the
Kann
ō
Disturbance (1350–52).
2
With so many competitions for power, it
is not unexpected that the half-century of shake-ups and armed struggle
after the Mongol attacks saw a burst of historiographic production, much
of it
Mirror
-inspired, as various parties attempted to stake their claims to
legitimacy.
1. An overview of these developments can be found in Hall, “Muromachi Bakufu,”
especially 175–93. On the date of Takauji’s
appointment, see ibid., 187.
2. I follow Thomas Conlan in the translation of
Dostları ilə paylaş: 
