PRIMEVAL JAPANESE." 



By Capt. F. Bkixklev. 



There are three written records of eTapan's early hi,stor3\ The 

 oldest^ of them dates from the beginning- of the eighth centur}" of the 

 Christian era, and deals with events extending back for fourteen hun- 

 dred years. The compilation of this work was one of the most 

 extraordinary feats eyer undertaken. The compiler had to construct 

 the sounds of his own tongue by means of ideographs deyised for 

 transcribing a foreign language. He had to render Japanese pho- 

 netically by using Chinese ideographs. It was as though a man 

 should set himself to commit Shakespeare's plays to writing b}- the aid 

 of the cuneiform characters of Babylon. A book composed in the 

 face of such difhculties could not conyey a yer}" clear idea of contem- 

 porary speech or thought. The same is true, though in a less degree, 

 of the other two*" volumes on which it is necessary to rel}'^ for knowl- 

 edge of ancient Japan. 



It might reasonabl}' be anticipated, arguing from the analogy of 

 other nations, that some plain practical theory would exist among the 

 Japanese as to their own origin; that tradition would have supplied 

 for them a proud creed identifying their forefathers with some of the 

 renowned peoples of the earth, and that if the progenitors of the nim- 

 ble- witted, active-bodied, refined, and high s})irited people now bid- 

 ding so earnestl}' for a ])lace in the comity of great nations had 

 migrated originall}^ from a land peopled ])y men possessing qualities, 

 such as they themselves have for centuries displayed, many aimals 

 descriptive of their prim(;val home would have l)een handed down 

 through the ages. There are no such theories, no such aniial^. no 

 such traditions. 



a Reprinted, by permission, from "Japan. Its History, Arts, and Literature." 

 Vol. I. Chapter II. Published by the J. B. Millet Company, of Boston and Tokyo. 

 Copyri^dit, 1901, by J. B. Millet Company. 



&The Koji-ki, or annals of ancient matters. 



cThe Nihon-gi (history of Japan) and the Koga-shu (ancient records). 



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