Gukanshō (愚管抄,
lit. "Jottings of a Fool") is a historical and literary work about the history of Japan. Seven volumes in length, it was composed by
Buddhist priest
Jien of the
Tendai sect around 1220.[1]
Jien, the author of Gukanshō (as rendered in a portrait found in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu)
Political problems arising from the relations between the Imperial government and the bakufu inspired Jien to write.[2] Jien was the son of
Fujiwara no Tadamichi, and his insider's perspective ensured that his work would have a distinct point of view. Rather than working towards an absence of bias, he embraced it; and Gukanshō is fairly described as a work of historical argument.[3] The writer does try to approach Japan's past in a new way, but he does so under the influences of old historical and genealogical interests.[4]
Volumes 3 through 6 present a historical description focusing on political transitions.
Volume 7 offers a summary of the contemporary state of the Japanese polity.
The careful writer attempted to apply Buddhist principles such as mappō to the process of developing a chronicle of people and events. He was also self-consciously focused on the application of Buddhist principles in the analysis of Japanese history.[5] However, Jien could never completely divorce his position as a son and brother of Fujiwara kogyū[clarification needed] officials from his position as a priest who studied and practiced Buddhism.[6]
Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
ISBN0-520-03460-0
Brownlee, John S. (1991). Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712). Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
ISBN0-88920-997-9
(in Japanese) Okami, Masao and Toshihide Akamatsu. (1967). [Jien, c. 1220] Gukanshō. Tokyo:
Iwanami Shoten.
ISBN4-00-060086-9