Nansō Satomi Hakkenden

Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Japanese: (in kyūjitai) 南總里見八犬傳; (in shinjitai) 南総里見八犬伝^?, the older and modern kanji character forms, respectively) is a Japanese epic novel in 106 volumes by Kyokutei Bakin. The volumes were written and published over a period of nearly thirty years (1814 to 1842). Bakin had gone blind before finishing the tale, and he dictated the final parts to his daughter-in-law Michi. The title has been translated as The Eight Dog Chronicles,Tale of Eight Dogs, or Biographies of Eight Dogs.

Set in the tumultuous Sengoku period (350 years before Bakin lived), Hakkenden is the story of eight samurai half-brothers—all of them descended from a dog and bearing the word "dog" in their surnames—and their adventures, with themes of loyalty and family honor, as well as Confucianism, bushido and Buddhist philosophy.

One of the direct inspiration sources of the novel is the 14th-17th-century Chinese epic novel Water Margin by Shi Nai'an. Japanese translations date back to at least 1757, when the first volume of an early Suikoden (Water Margin rendered in Japanese) was printed.

The story of a princess marrying a dog who brings her father the head of his enemy seems to be a reference to the Chinese myth of Panhu.

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