Rekishi monogatari

Rekishi monogatari (歴史物語) is a category of Japanese literature defined as extended prose narrative. Structurally, the name is composed of the Japanese words rekishi (歴史), meaning history, and monogatari (物語), meaning tale or narrative. Because of this it is commonly translated as ‘historical tale’. Although now categorised as works of fiction, Japanese readers before the nineteenth century traditionally accepted and read rekishi monogatari, as well as the related gunki monogatari and earlier Six National Histories, as literal and chronological historical accounts.^[1][2][3]