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two centuries elapsed after the Kojiki was written without any substantial addition being made to the prose literature of Japan. Some of the Norito and Imperial edicts described in a previous chapter belong to this period, but it was not until the early part of the tenth century that Japanese writers took up in earnest the practice of prose composition in their native language. , the poet and editor of the Kokinshiu, was the first in the field.

But few details of his life have reached us. He was a court noble who traced his descent in a direct line from one of the Mikados, and his history is little more than the record of the successive offices which he held at Kiōto and in the provinces. He died A.D. 946.

His famous preface to the Kokinshiu was written about 922. It has to this day a reputation in Japan as the ne plus ultra of elegance in style. Later literature is full of allusions to it, and it has served as the model for countless similar essays. It is interesting as the first attempt to discuss such a philosophical question as the