Encyclopedia of Shinto

詳細表示 (Complete Article)

カテゴリー1: 9. Texts and Sources
カテゴリー2: Shinto Classics and Literature
Title
Shinsen shōjiroku
Text
This is a record of the genealogy of the ancient families living in the capital (Heian-kyō) and the five inner provinces. It was compiled near the beginning of the Heian period. It is also known variously as Shōjiroku and Shinsen shōjiroku-shō . It consists of thirty books. The complete work is no longer extant and, at present, only an abbreviated manuscript survives. The first volume containing the table of contents has also been lost. Among those involved in this works compilation are Prince Manda, the fifth son of Emperor Kanmu, Fujiwara Sonohito, Fujiwara Otsugu, Abe Makatsu, Mihara Otohira, Kamitsukeno Kaihito, and others. The work was originally completed on the first day of the sixth month of 814 when the preface was attached; however, as families like the Minamoto, Yoshimine, Nagaoka, and Hirone, and others had been dropped from the registers, it was expanded and recompiled to include these names. This recompiled document was presented to the court on the twelfth day of the seventh month of the following year with the addition of a cover letter. A number of efforts to compile a record of lineages had previously been made but, due to the political upheaval in the middle of the Nara period and the rise and fall of the influence of various families, attempts like those of Fujiwara Nakamaro to compile a catalog of families between 761 and 763—in response to an increase in the number of foreign immigrant families to whom the court was granting new surnames—did not come to fruition. In Fujiwara Nakamaro's case, because of the revolt led by the same Emi no Oshikatsu (Fujiwara Nakamaro himself), this catalog went not completed. In the Heian period, in the twelfth month of 799, Emperor Kanmu ordered the various families to submit registers detailing their origins but there were few families that submitted these documents within the required time, and the project was discontinued with Kanmu's passing. Finally, once Emperor Saga had ascended the throne, after the ninth month of 810 the compilation project was begun in earnest and the final product was Shinsen shōjiroku.

Contents

The contents divide the one thousand one hundred eighty-two families of the capital and the inner provinces into general categories according to each family's ancestry: imperial lineage (three hundred thirty-five families in Books One through Ten), divine lineage (four hundred four families in Books Eleven through Twenty), and foreign lineage (three hundred twenty-six families in Books Twenty-one through Twenty-nine). The genealogies of these families were then categorized according to the place where the registered dwelling of the family was located, in the following order: left side of the capital, right side of the capital, Yamashiro, Settsu, Yamato, Kawachi, and Izumi. The final book contains families whose lineage is considered indeterminate (one hundred seventeen families in Book Thirty). Imperial lineage refers to offspring of the successive emperors, while divine lineage points to descendants of the heavenly and earthly deities. Foreign lineage indicates descendants of people from Korea (Paekche, Koguryo, Silla, and Mimana) and China.
The preface notes that there are ‘three classes of lineage,' and the various entries start with the founding ancestor of the family by saying, "They descend from..." if they are direct descendants, or "They are descendants of the same family as..." if they are indirect descendants. When the lineage is not clear, the lineage starts with the words, "They are offspring of..." and, it is clear from remaining fragments, that this work continues on to give a record of the origins of the families, along with the circumstances surrounding how family members received their names, and how the family received its surname. Each entry also contained the founding father's name, and the names of other descendants, and any other lineages that contributed to the family are recorded as well as other offspring and details surrounding the families' principle dwelling area, details surrounding a change in surname, and the names of the members that submitted their register to the court. The surviving abbreviated text does not contain much of this detail, having been distilled so that most of the records note only the three categories of direct, indirect, and unclear ancestry. Regardless, this abbreviated version, as well as fragments of the original text found in quotes in other works, contains folklore about various families that is unique to this text and not found in Kojiki, Nihon shoki or other records. Furthermore, in addition to being a valuable Shintō classic, this record provides important historical information regarding the hereditary relationship of some ancient families and the deities of heaven and earth (tenshin chigi ).

Manuscripts and Published Versions

The existence of a complete text can be confirmed through various quotes in other records down to the end of the Kamakura period but, from that point on, this text was passed down in abbreviated forms—forming two separate versions of the text, one dated 1335 and the other 1360. These branches have a significant amount of disparity after Book Twenty-one. Saeki Arikiyo's in Shinsen shōjiroku no kenkyū—honbun hen serves as a collated text composed of the Mikannagi Kiyonao manuscript, which belongs to the first branch, and the Yanagihara Norimitsu manuscript of the other branch. Regarding published texts, there are four: Shirai Sōin text (1668), Matsushita Kenrin text (1669), Hashimoto Inahiko text (1807), Gunsho ruijū text (1813-1817). As far as commentary is concerned, there is the detailed and rigorous work by Kurita Hiroshi in Shinsen shōjiroku kōshō (contained in Shintō Taikei, volume six of Koten-hen, Shinsen shōjiroku, 1981). Additionally, Saeki Arikiyo's nine volume Shinsen shōjiroku no kenkyū (1962-1984) monograph on the work is also available. Fragments of the original text are also contained in Shintō Taikei, volume six of Koten-hen, Shinsen shōjiroku.
— Motosawa Masafumi

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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