Kojiki
Kojiki or
Furukotofumi (古事記), also known in English as the
Records of Ancient Matters, is the oldest surviving historical book dealing with the ancient
history of Japan. It also mentions an older compilation said to have been destroyed by fire.
According to the preface, the book was presented by
O no Yasumaro based on a story memorized by
Hieda no Are in
712. Begun under the commission of
Emperor Temmu in 680 A.D. and completed by the order of Empress Gemmei in 712 A.D., The
Kojiki mimics imperial genealogies of deity descent entering Japan from China. The "Kojiki" was later followed by a more updated record,
Nihonshoki.
The
Kojiki does not recount official history like the later
Nihonshoki. Other than the
Kojiki, no other history has claimed that it was compiled on an official order. This has led some to claim that the
Kojiki was a forgery that actually appeared much later than the
Nihonshoki but this claim has little support.
Kojiki begins with the very beginning of the world as it was created by the
kami (
deities)
Izanagi and
Izanami and ends with the era of
Empress Suiko. It contains various
myths and
legends of
Japan. It also contains various songs/poems. While the historical records and myths are written in a form of
Chinese with a heavy admixture of Japanese elements, the songs are written with
Chinese characters used to convey sounds only. This special use of Chinese characters is called
Manyogana, a knowledge of which is critical to understanding these songs. These songs are in the dialect of the Yamato area from about
7th century to
8th century CE, a language called
Jōdai Nihongo (lit. "upper age
Japanese"). In
English, this is most commonly called
Old Japanese.
The
Kojiki is divided into three parts:
Kamitsumaki (lit. upper roll),
Nakatsumaki (lit. middle roll), and
Shimotsumaki (lit. lower roll).
The Kamitsumaki includes the
preface and is focused on the deities that made Japan and the births of various deities.
The Nakatsumaki begins with the story of
Emperor Jimmu, the first
Emperor, and his conquest of Japan, and ends with the 15th Emperor,
Emperor Ojin. Many of the stories it contains are mythological, and the allegedly historical information in them is highly suspect. For unknown reasons, the 2nd to 9th Emperors are listed but their achievements are largely missing.
The Shimotsumaki covers the 16th to 33rd Emperors, and, unlike previous volumes, has very limited references to interactions with deities so prominent in the first and second volumes. Information on the 24th to 33rd Emperors are largely missing as well.
In the
Edo period,
Motoori Norinaga studied the
Kojiki intensively, the results of which were published in his
Kojiki-den (Kojiki Commentary). It was first claimed in the Edo period that the
Kojiki may have been forged later than it was supposed to have been written.
The first and best-known English
translation of the
Kojiki was made by the renowned Japanologist
Basil Hall Chamberlain. More recently, a well-regarded translation was made by
Donald L. Philippi. It was published by
Columbia University Press in October
1982 (ISBN 0-86008-320-9).
*
mahoroba*
The Internet Sacred Text Archive - An online version of
Basil Hall Chamberlain's
1919 translation of
Kojiki.
