Nyoin, the Empress Dowager in Pious Life, is arrested at Dannoura and forced back to Kyo. "Kanjo-no-Maki" in which Nyoin's life after Dannoura istold, has a particular position in Heike Monogatari. I believe that there is aclue to understand the story on Nyoin lies in the expression of "The whole world is under her control." in "Kanjo-no-Maki". It is used for Nyoin, thoughit is often employed to describe the great power of Kiyomori in the rest of theentire story. Nyoin, who always stays behind the great figure of Kiyomori in the story, regards every incident as the retribution of her own guilt and takes all the guilt upon herself. Nyoin's affliction and purification, which are identical with those at the Heike family, forms the structure of "Kanjo-no-Maki", making it unique and separate from the regular books of Heike, Two kinds of the texts for Nyoin's story are transmitted. One is the reading text and the other is the narrative text. In the narrative text, the theme is concentrated on the reduced circumstances of Nyoin and the story seems to be included within the range of the logic of the regular books of thestory. In the reading book, however, the story is made independent from theregular books because of the descriptions of the psychological state of Nyoin and her bitter feeling toward the retired Emperor Goshirakawa. The two texts, though their characteristics make quite a contrast with each other, help to enrich the world of Heike Monogatari by describing Nyoin in their own ways.
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