History mid Religion, 
political rights and privileges, being to a large extent eman- 
cipated from their former condition of serfdom. 
We are told that the first census taken in Japan was in 
1744, and that the population of the islands was then 
found to be about 26,080,000. The last census was taken 
in 1876, and we are informed that the population at that 
date was 33,338,504. It is interesting to observe that the 
value of a census of the people was understood among this 
strange nation, many years before our own enlightened 
Government adopted it. 
The Japanese have their sacred books, like the Chinese 
and Hindoos, and set much store by them. They are 
called the Kojiki^ and Nihonki ; and, curiously enough, the 
Kojiki is the compilation of a woman. This woman is said 
to have been a peasant girl gifted with a wonderful memory, 
and who, Dy order of the then Mikado, furnished the chief 
materials for the sacred volume Kojiki in the commence- 
ment of the seventh century. These sacred writings contain, 
beside moral precepts and teaching relating to the gods, 
much of the ancient history of Japan. The Kojiki gw^^ some 
teaching in relation to the creation of the world, and states 
that in the beginning, before there was any earth or men, a 
god existed, called "The Lord of the Centre of Heaven." 
After this god, there came into being two others, entitled, 
" Lofty Producer ' and " Divine Producer/' who created 
the earth, between them, and all that inhabited the earth. 
Shintoism is the oldest religion of Japan, and, properly 
speaking, the national religion. Buddhism was not intro- 
duced from China, until about six hundred years a.d. 
Shintoism may be defined as a worship of Nature, It is 
called by the natives themselves, Kami-no-michi^ or, "Way 
of the Gods." The sun, moon, stars, animals, trees, moun- 
tains, rivers, lakes, clouds, thunder, — in short, everything in 
