Show Summary Details
Overview
setsuwa bungaku
Quick Reference
A Japanese Buddhist term referring to a type of literature that is narrative, rather than scholarly, scriptural, or didactic, in nature. The earliest and best-known example is the Nihonkoku genpō zen'aku ryōiki (Miraculous Stories of the Retribution of Good and Evil in the Country of Japan) by the monk Kyōkai in 822. This work, like others in the genre, presents stories of good and evil deeds and the manner in which the doers receive their karmic recompense (see karma), as a way of exhorting moral behaviour.
