↑ arvau

Wikipedia / Fudoki

are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and folklore. Fudoki manuscripts also document local myths, rituals, and poems that are not mentioned in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki chronicles, which are the most important literature of the ancient national mythology and history. In the course of national unification, the imperial court enacted a series of criminal and administrative codes called ritsuryō and surveyed the provinces established by such codes to exert greater control over them.

Kofudoki

In the narrower sense, Fudoki refer to the oldest records written in the Nara period, later called . Compilation of Kofudoki began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period. Following the Taika Reform in 646 and the Code of Taihō enacted in 701, there was need to centralize and solidify the power of the imperial court. This included accounting for lands under its control. According to the Shoku Nihongi, Empress Genmei issued a decree in 713 ordering each to collect and report the following information:

  • Etymology of names for geographic features, such as mountains, plains, and rivers

  • Land fertility

  • Myths, legends, and folktales told orally by old people

  • Names of districts and townships

  • Natural resources and living things

Names

Empress Genmei ordered in 713 that place names in the provinces, districts, and townships be written in two kanji characters with positive connotations. This occasionally required name changes. For example, became and became .

Manuscripts

At least 48 of the Gokishichidō provinces contributed to their records but only that of Izumo remains nearly complete. Partial records of Hizen, Bungo, Harima and Hitachi remain and a few passages from various volumes remain scattered throughout various books. Those of Harima and Hizen are designated National Treasures.

The Izumo Fudoki, the only manuscript to survive in complete form, was compiled in 733 by Miyake no Omi Kanatatari under the supervision of Izumo no Omi Hiroshima; its composite character, drawing together several local chronicles, is credited with giving it the widest range of kami among the surviving Fudoki. On the basis of date and style, the extant Fudoki are further grouped into the Wadō Fudoki (Harima and Hitachi), which are stylistically closer to the Nihon Shoki, and the Tenpyō Fudoki (Izumo, Bungo, and Hizen); the two groups can also be distinguished by their use of the administrative terms gō or sato for "village", reflecting whether the text predates or postdates the abolition of the village-hamlet system in 739–740.

Below is a list of extant manuscripts and scattered passages.

Kinai

Tōkaidō

Tōsandō

Hokurikudō

San'indō

San'yōdō

Nankaidō

Saikaidō

Parks

In 1966 the Agency for Cultural Affairs called on the prefectural governments to build open-air museums and parks called near historic sites such as tombs (kofun) and provincial temples. These archaeological museums preserve and exhibit cultural properties to enhance public understanding of provincial history and culture.

See also

Notes

References