Talk:The Tale of the Heike

First section; unsigned
I would like to know who started this book

Author?
As far as I am aware, it is an anonymous work, an epic and classical piece not unlike Beowulf, the Bible, or the Odyssey & Iliad (many believe that Homer was a pseudonym, or even a group of people, not a single individual). Much like, to take an example, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the Tale of the Heike was passed down orally through many generations before it was set down into a permanent written/painted form. So, even if we did know who wrote it the first time - and this may or may not be known, I'm not sure - it barely even matters. Whoever it was simply wrote down what he heard or knew, the story that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

LordAmeth 03:34, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Well, I can apport some knowledge about this: the final version of this compilation ( "monogatari"= stories) made by a lot of "biwas" dates of 1371. It is believed ( a budist monk called Yoshida Kenkoo wrote this in his book [ sorry, I don't know the translation in English, I'm spanish and I do all I can]) that Yukinaga did this last version, fixing all the other works, and he showed it to the musician Shobutsu, the "biwa". If you want some more information, you can ask me in this e-mail: brisk_90@hotmail.com (I was registered a long time ago in es.wikipedia.org, not in the english page) I'm doing this because I really enjoyed this book in my youth, ( now, I'm 18, lol) and I'm proud of keeping in my room a great edition of this book. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.27.16.94 (talk) 22:29, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I continued my work with the auctory, just because I saw questions about it and I consider it can be an interesting point in this article. Please, if there is some one who can check all of this: - References: I can apport the edition of the book I've used to do this, but it'll be a problem to identify since I'm spanish. "Heike Monogatari" - Gredos Editorial ( www.editorialgredos.com) CODE: M. 7543-20006 / ISBN 84-249-2787-7 [ I would put it, but I don't know how XD] - The title of Yoshida Kenkou's work... I'm not really sure what's the real title, I can assure that's the japanese name, but I can't assure that the translation I did is the adapted for that book in USA/ UK..., I leave the spanish title, it may be helpfull: "Ocurrencias de un ocioso". - I could have comitted some grammar or ortographic mistakes, I encourage everybody to correct them. - The beginning of summary section contains a paragraph about the most famous edition that could be perfectly included in the authorship section I did.

Greetings, remember if you need to contact me for any reason, I leave my mail here: Brisk_90@hotmail.com


 * Thanks for your hard work. I have cleaned up your language a bit; I hope I have not changed the meaning too much. Keep up the good work! LordAmeth (talk) 00:24, 14 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Really thanks for checking it! Yes, it's ok now :-) ( as you can see, I've registered myself.) If you want me to keep improving this, just say it, I have plenty material about this :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brisk 90 (talk • contribs) 14:12, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Hey, I'm in the process of writing a scholarly article on this piece; I wanted to share my findings with you. If you want any clarifications, feel free to email me at ande4168@umn.edu —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.166.90.48 (talk) 00:27, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
 * The title of the Yoshida Kenkou work you are looking for is Tsurezure Gusa. It has been widely agreed upon in the scholarly community that the statements in Kenkou's works are correct, but they don't specify whether Yukinaga wrote the first or last version;  the piece says "In the time of the Retired Emperor Go-Toba, Shinano-no-Zenji Yukinaga was renowned for his knowledge of musical matters...It was this lay priest Yukinaga who wrote the Heike Monogatari."  Kenkou died in 1350, and the oldest known manuscript dates from about 1310, so Yukinaga couldn't have made the *final* manuscript, assuming Kenkou is correct.  The Japanese Society for Investigation of National Literature concluded in the early 1900s that the Heike Monogatari's first revision was completed by 1220, but that no clear author can be found.
 * The first translation of this piece was actually written by Arthur Lindsay Sadler in a journal called "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol XLVI (46) part II, which was published in 1918.

== Comparisons ==

The section "Comparisons" was contributed by someone who obviously never even bothered to open an English translation of the Heike. I propose to get rid of it. Comments? Contact Basemetal here 04:49, 24 May 2014 (UTC) Basemetal  18:14, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Tyler Translation
I've noticed that there is a recent translation by Royall Tyler which is not cited in the article but which I thought might deserve mention. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chriscr30 (talk • contribs) 23:21, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Chapter8(barbarian-subduing commander)
征夷大将軍は"barbarian-subduing commander"ではないと思います. 奈良時代に異民族（蝦夷）を討伐する将軍につけられましたが、平家物語の時代には、征夷大将軍は東の敵を倒す将軍といってよい意味になっています.

（本来、源頼朝は征東大将軍になるはずだったが、征東大将軍木曽義仲が処刑されたばかりだったので凶（運が悪い）と思われ、征夷大将軍になった. ） 狐月狼陽 (talk) 03:20, 19 October 2022 (UTC)