The Tale of the Heike

The Tale of the Heike (平家物語, Heike Monogatari) is an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185).

It has been translated into English at least five times. The first translation was by Arthur Lindsay Sadler, in 1918–1921.^[1] A complete translation in nearly 800 pages by Hiroshi Kitagawa & Bruce T. Tsuchida was published in 1975. It was also translated by Helen McCullough in 1988. An abridged translation by Burton Watson was published in 2006. In 2012, Royall Tyler completed his translation, which, he says, seeks to be mindful of the performance style for which the work was originally intended.

Historical novelist Eiji Yoshikawa published a prose rendering in the Asahi Weekly in 1950, under the title New Tale of the Heike (Shin Heike Monogatari).