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영어

Heiankyo, which was the capital city during the Heian Dynasty, plays an importantrole not only from historical and geographical perspectives but as a stage for thecreation of ancient Japanese literature. Heiankyo became the basis for today’s Kyotoculture and served as the spatial background of dynasty literature. Its elegant anddelicate culture has been admired by people. This admiration and fantasy about the city can also be identified through abstractand pictorial descriptions of Heiankyo as a setting of literature. Heiankyo can be divided into West Kyoto and East Kyoto along Suzaku Boulevardrepresenting prosperity and decay, respectively. This spatial division is reflectedin the works of literature set in Heiankyo. In other words, the spatial image of Heiankyo as a symbol of municipal regalpower and the center of aristocratic culture was a cultural space of miyabi calledhanano miyako, but behind the facade as a cultural space lied the image as a placeof evil spirit where resentment and mononoke existed as a result of a political powerstruggle. Therefore, it can be argued that this double-sidedness of Heiankyo is reflectedin the fact that the city, the center of miyabi culture, serves as a space of mononokethat mainly generates stories of city ghosts.