506 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



wlieii she retired into a cavern and tliat darkness did not exist l)ef()re 

 slie was born, is one that would strike a- child's intelligence. The critic 

 need not make so much fuss about this point, as if it were an entirely 

 new discovery of his own. The very inconsistency is the proof of the 

 authenticity of the record, foi' who would have gone out of his way to 

 invent a story a])i)arently so ridi<'uIous and incredible. The acts of 

 the gods are not exidained by ordinary ])rinciples." (Translation of 

 E. Hatow.) 



China suflers rather severely at tin; hands of the Japanese critics. 

 One of them thns disposes of a very ancient tradition : '' There is a 

 tradition in China that the left and right eyes of Puanku became the 

 sun and the moon, which is, however, usually discredited, because 

 the natives of that country, being admirers of false knowledge, assign 

 the origin of these two luminaries to the positive and negative 

 essences. The real truth is, that the sun and the moon were i)roduced 

 when Izanagi washed his eyes after returning from his search after 

 Izanami in the nether world. The tradition has evidently traveled to 

 China and assumed the perverted form in which we find it there." 

 (Satow.) What infinite assnrance! The story was current in China 

 before the Japanese began to exist as a nation. But this is only an 

 introduction. We add more quotations without further remarks. 



" People who have been misled by their foreign studies are wont to 

 say that Japan is a little country, as if extent of territory were any 

 criterion of the importance or rank of a state." 



" From the fact of the divine descent of the Japanese people proceeds 

 their immeasurable superiority to the natives of other countries in 

 courage and intelligence." 



"It was not out of vainglory that the inhabitants of this country 

 called it the land of the gods. The gods who created all countries 

 belonged to the Divine Age and were all born in Japan, so that Japan 

 is their native country and all the world acknowledges the appropri- 

 ateness of the title. The Koreans were the first to become acquainted 

 with this truth," etc. 



"As it was Japan which lay directly opposite the sun when it 

 separated from the earth, it is quite clear that Japan lies on the summit 

 of the globe." 



" Foreign countries were of course produced by the power of the cre- 

 ator gods, but they were not begotten by Izanagi and Izanami, nor did 

 they give birth to the goddess of the sun, which is the cause of their 

 inferiority. The traditions about the origin of the world which are 

 presented in foreign countries are naturally incorrect, just as the 

 accounts of an event which has happened at the capital become dis- 

 torted when they travel to a province and it comes to be believed that 

 the province was the scene of the event." (Satow.) 



