Tsukuri Monogatari (fanciful tale) (作り物語)

Among the Ocho Monogatari (tales from the Heian and Kamakura periods), Tsukuri monogatari refers to the fictitious works in which a story unfolds with a fictitious person as the main character.

The Ocho monogatari genre started with "Taketori Monogatari" (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), "Hakoya no toji" and "Karamori," but it reached its peak with "Genji Monogatari" (The Tale of Genji); these works, which formed the mainstream of this genre, were followed by works ranging from a succession of inferior imitations of The Tale of Genji to the Medieval tales, and this genre boasts the highest number of works of any genre.

[Original Japanese]