Dai Nihon Yashi (Unofficial History of Japan) (大日本野史)
Dai Nihon Yashi is a Japanese history book written in a style of biographical historiography, and covers the 21 Emperors' reigns from Emperor Gokomatsu (Meitoku era) to Emperor Ninko. During the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the book was written by Tadahiko IDA, who was a scholar of Kokugaku (National Learning) from Tokuyama Domain and served the Arisugawa no Miya family later and it was completed in 1851. It consists of 291 volumes in total. Sometimes it is called 'Yashi' for short.
Because "Dai Nipponshi" (The History of Japan), a history book made by Mitsukuni TOKUGAWA, was finished with an account of unifying Japan in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (in 1392), Ida planned to write a sequel to the book and spent more than thirty years in completing it. The original text was written in classical Chinese, but the manuscripts were dispersed and lost because Ida committed suicide protesting against being arrested on the suspicion of getting involved in the Sakuradamongai Incident, therefore his bereaved family published it in 1881 based on the book which Ida was asked to print after the completion of the book.
It is rich in biographies of busho (Japanese military commander) in the Sengoku Period and daimyo (Japanese territorial lord). (Especially the articles about the Muromachi period is said to be more excellent than those about the Edo period, and above all the descriptions ranging from the Onin War to the process of restructuring a feudal system were written well, because the author had to care about the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) during writing.)
However the book was written by Ida alone using limited number of historical materials; therefore Hiroyuki MIURA and Katsumi KUROITA pointed out that it lacked accuracy.
Contents
Biographies of the Emperors, 21 volumes (the 21st volume concerning the former Emperor Ninko has a table of contents only)
A series of biographies, 270 volumes
Biographies of Empresses, 3 volumes
Biographies of Princes, 3 volumes
Biographies of Princesses, 1 volume
Biographies of Imperial Families, 6 volumes
Biographies of busho (Japanese military commander), 30 volumes (concerning the Ashikaga Shogun family, the Oda clan, the Toyotomi clan, and the Tokugawa Shogun family, although the last volume has a table of contents only)
Biographies of Kozoku (branch families of four busho families which were dealt with in the biographies of busho), 16 volumes
Biographies of maternal relatives, 2 volumes (concerning the Tokugawa Shogun family's maternal relatives)
Biographies of scholarly vassals, 10 volumes (concerning the court nobles in Kyoto)
Biographies of warrior vassals, 158 volumes (concerning various daimyo)
Biographies of Confucians, 10 volumes (concerning Confucian scholars)
Biographies of waka poets, 1 volume
Biographies of dutiful children, 3 volumes
Biographies of men of loyalty and courage, 3 volumes
Biographies of chaste ladies, 3 volumes
Biographies of doctors, 3 volumes
Biographies of recluses, 1 volume
Biographies of men of chivalry, 1 volume
Biographies of wicked vassals, 1 volume
Biographies of rebellious vassals, 1 volume
Biographies of traitors, 2 volumes
Biographies of priests, 2 volumes (concerning Buddhist priests)
Biographies of foreigners, 10 volumes