Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/335

Rh of years longer, and it is not until the fifth century of our era that we have anything approaching to a genuine historical record.

Whatever grains of truth may be contained in the narrative from Jimmu Tennō onwards, there can be no question that all that precedes is pure myth. It is to this early period, known as the kami-yo or age of the gods, that I propose to confine myself in the present paper. The events which are stated to belong to it form the basis of the Shinto (i.e. Way of the Gods) religion.

It may be questioned whether the ancient myths of Japan are, in the strict sense of the word, "folklore." Their birthplace and home seems to have been the Court of the Mikado rather than the nation at large, and their original depositories were doubtless the two hereditary corporations termed Nakatomi and Imbe, which were attached to this court for the vicarious performance of the Mikado's sacerdotal functions. We hear later of a Kataribe or "corporation of reciters," whose business it was to recite "ancient words" before the Mikado on certain solemn state occasions, such as the beginning of a new reign. We unfortunately know very little of this body of functionaries, but it can hardly be doubted that their recitals helped to furnish material for the written mythical and historical narratives which have come down to us.

The most important of these are two works entitled the Kojiki and the Nihongi. The Kojiki or "Records of Ancient Matters" was completed in 712. It is said to have been taken down from the lips of one Hiyeda no Are, possibly one of the corporation of reciters just mentioned, who could "repeat with his mouth whatever was placed before his eyes, and record in his heart whatever struck his ears." The Kojiki has been literally and faithfully translated by Mr. B. H. Chamberlain in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Supplement to vol. x., 1882.