Kodaireki (a chronicle) (皇代暦)
Kodaireki is a chronicle written between the Period of Northern and Southern Courts and the Muromachi period. The author was Kinkata TOIN. Later, Chikanaga KANROJI augmented it to form the edition as it is today. Mitsukuni TOKUGAWA gave it the name Rekidaikoki in the Edo period.
It describes the history from immemorial times to 1477, the Bunmei era under the rein of Emperor Gotsuchimikado. Although its original five-volume edition that was presented to Emperor Gotsuchimikado from Chikanaga KANROJI does not survive today, the Imperial Household Archives stores a duplicate copy ('Yanagi genpon' (Yanagi's original copy)) that was transcribed from the original edition by Norimitsu YANAGIHARA in the Edo period. Another edition that had been stored by Tsunatoshi MAEDA of the Kaga domain is now in the Sonkeikaku Library.
Contents
According to the five-volume edition that is said to be the unmodified copy of the original one:
The age of the gods to the era of Emperor Uda
The era of Emperor Daigo to the era of Emperor Horikawa
The era of Emperor Toba to the era of Emperor Gotoba
The era of Emperor Tsuchimikado to the era of Emperor Suko
The era of Emperor Gokogon to the era of Gotsuchimikado
There are also a six-volume edition and a seven-volume edition: the fourth volume was split in two for the former; the latter has the separate seventh volume which has excerpts of the uragaki (additional parts) in addition to the former one.
Each page has five columns: the first column has the Emperor's brief biography; the second column has important incidents around the Imperial Palace; the third column has matters about the Retired Emperor, the Crown Prince, the Imperial Prince, the Imperial Princess, and an empress; the fourth and the fifth columns have personnel affairs of important offices such as sessho (regent), kanpaku (chief adviser to the Emperor), a minister, seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians"), and Konoe no daisho (Major Captain of the Palace Guards). In the first to the third volumes, the history and appointments of monks in China were added and these parts were called 'uragaki' (additional parts).
The third volume belonging to the first three volumes with uragaki is the original form written by Kinkata TOIN which is indicated in the page of April 9, 1356 (the first year of the Enbun era) (old calendar) of his own diary "Entairyaku", which says he had edited the continuation of Kodaireki, and this continuation is considered to be the fourth volume. Therefore, the first three volumes were written before the Enbun era.
Some unknown people are considered to have taken over to write the continuation after Kinkata's death, but it was Chikanaga KANROJI who made Kodaireki as it is today. One can see Chikanaga took good care of Kodaireki from his diary "Chikanaga-kyoki" which says he first grabbed this book while evacuating a big fire which occurred in Kyoto in 1476. Emperor Gotsuchimikado, who later heard of this episode, ordered Chikanaga to give the copy to the Imperial Court, so he added descriptions until his time to present to the Emperor the copy of Kodaireki, which is said to have been the original edition.