俊寛
A servant visits the exiled Shunkan and finds him unlike the legend.
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About the book
Told in the voice of the attendant Ariō, this text opens with his journey to Kakai Island to visit the exiled Shunkan, insisting that the tales circulating about him differ from the truth. The first-person narration carries a tone of quiet testimony and remembrance.
Cultural notes (selection)
Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.
A Shingon monk of the late Heian period and a close retainer of the retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa. In 1177 (Jishō era, third year of Angen) he took part in the Shishigatani plot, in which Fujiwara no Narichika and others conspired to eliminate Taira no Kiyomori, and was exiled to the island of Kikaigashima. He was the only exile never granted a pardon. His story appears in both The Tale of the Heike and Genpei Jōsuiki.
In The Tale of the Heike, Taira no Shunkan's young page. After Shunkan's exile, Yūō is said to have crossed the sea to visit him on Kikaigashima. Akutagawa's story retells this island visit in Yūō's first-person voice, and uses his mouth to criticise the biwa hōshi's accounts of Shunkan as inaccurate rumours.
A remote southern island to which serious criminals were exiled in the late Heian period, generally identified with present-day Iōjima in Kagoshima Prefecture, though its exact location is debated. Because the sea passage was so long and exiles almost never returned alive, it was regarded as a place of extremely harsh banishment, which is why any hope of pardon for Shunkan was so slim.
About the author
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.
How the glosses are made
Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.
FAQ
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This one is marked “Advanced”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.
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