Reflecting the Past : Place, Language, and Principle in Japan's Medieval Mirror Genre (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

Drawing on a decade of research, Erin Brightwell analyzes eight Mirrors and related medieval Japanese texts recounting the history of that time and place. Downplayed and obscured by previous scholars, the mirrors emerge as a once-dominant genre of historical writing—a means by which authors brought order to the chaos of the period.