PARIS -- More than 800 years ago a feud between two powerful clans closed the most glorious period of refined court culture in Japan. The downfall of the Heike clan was considered equal to bringing an end to the Heian Period (794-1185). The stories of the rise and fall of this family, whose leading members were closely related to the Imperial family, were disseminated even at an early stage by blind biwa (lute) performers.
In the 14th century a standardized version of the epics became the model of the so-called heikyoku which is handed down to the present day by only a small group of performers.
This long tradition in the hands of highly educated musicians inspired many arts. We find Heike stories in the theater genres of noh, kabuki and bunraku; in all kinds of poetry, in painting and in practically every other form of Japanese representative or performing art, down to 20th-century film and TV drama.