Koshikibu (one-volume otogi-zōshi)
Open-knowledge reference entry
Koshikibu (小式部) is a Japanese otogi-zōshi from the late Muromachi period. It is also known as The Tale of Izumi Shikibu (和泉式部の物語 Izumi Shikibu no monogatari).
Title
Koshikibu is also known in some incomplete manuscripts as Izumi Shikibu no monogatari. The primary title Koshikibu refers to Koshikibu no Naishi, but the work is actually about three generations in the family, including her mother Izumi Shikibu and grandmother Murasaki Shikibu.
Genre and date
Koshikibu is a work of the otogi-zōshi genre. It is also classified as a kajin-densetsu-mono (歌人伝説物), a work that recounts a legend about a waka poet, and a katoku-setsuwa (歌徳説話), a tale about the virtues of waka poetry (see Setsuwa).
The work incorporates a number of folk-tales that were apparently in circulation about its various character, and shares several elements in common with other otogi-zōshi such as Izumi Shikibu, Shuten-dōji and the other Koshikibu.
It was composed in the late Muromachi period.
Plot
The work portrays Murasaki Shikibu, Izumi Shikibu and Koshikibu no Naishi as three generations of the same family.
Murasaki, an ingenious lady-in-waiting at the imperial court, one night has a strange dream and becomes pregnant.
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