Four Heavenly Kings

Japanese: 四天王物 - してんのうもの

It is a branch of Bunraku puppet theater, Kabuki Kyogen, and Kabuki dance. The Zen-Taiheiki mono, which seeks its background and characters (the "world") from the 41 volumes of the Zen-Taiheiki (around 1681), a military chronicle more like a novel than a historical record, can be broadly divided into stories based on the heroic tales of Minamoto no Yorimitsu and his four heavenly kings (Watanabe no Tsuna, Sakata no Kintoki, Usui no Sadamitsu, and Urabe no Suetake), and stories based on the revenge of the surviving children of the traitor Taira no Masakado, Soma Taro Yoshikado, Takiyasha, and the rebellion of Iga Jutaro and other remnants of Fujiwara no Sumitomo. Of these, the Shi-tenno mono are a group of works based on the former.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

人形浄瑠璃，歌舞伎狂言，歌舞伎舞踊の一系統。史書というより小説に近い軍記《前太平記》41巻(1681ころ)に背景や登場人物(〈世界〉)を求める〈前太平記物〉は，源頼光とその四天王(渡辺綱，坂田金(公)時，碓氷貞光（うすいのさだみつ），卜部季武（うらべのすえたけ）の4人の家来)の武勇伝と，反逆者平将門の遺児相馬太郎良門，滝夜叉の復讐や藤原純友の残党伊賀寿太郎らの反逆を素材にしたものとに大別できる。このうち，四天王物は前者を題材とした作品群である。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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