, abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history

History of Japan

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...

 text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories

Rikkokushi

is a general term for Japan's six national histories chronicling the mythology and history of Japan from the earliest times to AD 887. The six histories were written at the imperial court during the eighth and ninth centuries, under order of the Emperors...

 series. It covers the years 858-887.

Background

Following the earlier national history Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku

Nihon Montoku Tenno Jitsuroku

, abbreviated as Montoku Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 879, it is the fifth text in the Six National Histories series...

(879), Emperor Uda

Emperor Uda

was the 59th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Uda's reign spanned the years from 887 through 897.-Name and legacy:Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was or Chōjiin-tei....

 ordered the compilation of the years since then. It was compiled by Fujiwara no Tokihira

Fujiwara no Tokihira

was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician during the Heian period.-Career:Tokihira was a minister under Emperor Daigo.* 891 : Tokihira was given a rank which was the equivalent of sangi....

, Sugawara no Michizane

Sugawara no Michizane

, also known as Kan Shōjō , a grandson of Sugawara no Kiyotomo , was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian Period of Japan...

, Ōkura no Yoshiyuki, and Mimune no Masahira. The text was completed in 901.

Contents

Written in Kanbun

Kanbun

The Japanese word originally meant "Classical Chinese writings, Chinese classic texts, Classical Chinese literature". This evolved into a Japanese method of reading annotated Classical Chinese in translation . Much Japanese literature was written in literary Chinese using this annotated style...

-style and contained within fifty volumes, the contents cover a span of thirty years from 858 to 887 corresponding to three imperial reigns: Seiwa

Emperor Seiwa

was the 56th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Seiwa's reign spanned the years from 858 through 876.-Traditional narrative:...

, Yōzei

Emperor Yozei

was the 57th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Yōzei's reign spanned the years from 876 through 884.-Traditional narrative:...

, and Kōkō

Emperor Koko

was the 58th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Kōkō reigned from 884 to 887.- Traditional narrative :Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was or Komatsu-tei. He would later be identified sometimes as "the Emperor of...

. It contains many imperial edicts and is more detailed compared to the earlier texts. Particularly famous is a description of Ariwara no Narihira

Ariwara no Narihira

was a Japanese waka poet and aristocrat. He was one of six waka poets referred in the preface in kana to Kokin Wakashū by Ki no Tsurayuki, and has been named as the hero of The Tales of Ise, whose hero was an anonym in itself but most of whose love affairs could be attributed to Narihira.He was the...

. Parts of volumes 15, 19, and 48 are incomplete.

Also described is an earthquake in July 869

869 Sanriku earthquake and tsunami

The struck the area around Sendai in the northern part of Honshu on 9 July 869 . The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 8.6 on the surface wave magnitude scale...

 and a tsunami that flooded the plains of northeast Japan: “The sea soon rushed into the villages and towns, overwhelming a few hundred miles of land along the coast. There was scarcely any time for escape, though there were boats and the high ground just before them. In this way about 1,000 people were killed.” These were the same plains that were submerged in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...

, according to one account. "Analysis of sediments left by the 869 tsunami led to an estimate that the earthquake had a magnitude of 8.3."

Final National History

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku is the final text in the Six National Histories series. In 936, a national history bureau (撰国史所) was established to maintain the existing national histories as well as to continue with their compilation. A new text, Shinkokushi, was begun. However, it remained in draft form and was never completed. The declining power of the Ritsuryō

Ritsuryo

is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei"...

 institution is cited as a cause.

See also

• Ruijū Kokushi
  Ruiju Kokushi
  is a historical text that categorizes and chronologizes the events listed in the Six National Histories. It was compiled by Sugawara no Michizane and completed in 892. The text was commissioned by Emperor Uda.-Contents:...
  
  , a categorized and chronological history text of the Six National Histories; valuable for reconstructing incomplete sections of Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku.