Nihon ryōiki

Record summary

Nihon ryōiki, attributed to the monk Kyōkai, is an early Japanese collection of karmic retribution stories, conversion accounts, dreams, omens, and Buddhist marvels. Its short narratives offer a useful comparison with Chinese Buddhist miracle literature and later Japanese setsuwa. The work may preserve local oral traditions alongside translated or adapted Buddhist motifs. Its exact composition history, manuscript transmission, and relationship to Chinese exemplars remain important research questions, so individual episodes should be treated as literary and religious testimony rather than independently verified incidents.