Welcome to the pages on this website devoted to The Tale of Heike. I originally developed this group of pages to support of a series of six lectures presented in the fall of 2004 at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco at the invitation of the Society for Asian Art. However, they have been rewritten with the non-specialist interested in pre-modern Japanese literature and culture in mind. — John Wallace, 27 Dec 2004

CONTACT ME via email at john.r.wallace@stanfordalumni.org

Links. This page has a descriptions of some useful and interesting links related to The Tale of Heike. Go to Tale of Heike links.

Multimedia index. This page lists all multimedia (not links to outside pages) included on all pages at this site devoted to The Tale of Heike. Go to Multimedia index.

Multimedia of general interest, that is, not associated with any particular passage or chapter within the story. Included here are photographs of locations, portraits, maps, weapons, clothing, etc. Go here.

Performing The Tale of Heike. Go here to see and hear the musical instrument, the biwa, that was used to provide the accomanying music when the story was performed. Examples of performers (biwa hôshi), score sheets (heikyoku) and a passage chanted are also on this page. Go to Performing The Tale of Heike.

Jump to specific chapters. On the chapter pages are summaries of the events of that chapter, descriptions of major characters involved in that chapter, notes that augment those given by Helen McCullough in her translation, various multimedia that support the concrete visualization and understanding of elements of that chapter, etc. The warring parties are color-coded. (The color-coding key and other details can be found on the page devoted to the overall structure of the story.)