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The ancient literature of Japan contains few works of a popular character. Almost without exception, everything which has come down to us from the period when the Japanese language was in its greatest purity and perfection was written by and for a learned circle composed chiefly of the Household of the Mikado and the officials of his government.

The Tosa Nikki is not an exception to this rule. The author was a Court noble named Tsurayuki, who traced his descent in a direct line from one of the Mikados, and whose history is little more than the record of the successive offices he held at Kioto and in the provinces. One of his appointments was to the prefecture of Tosa, and it was on his journey back to Kioto after having completed the four years which were then the fixed term for such offices, that he wrote the Diary which is the subject of the present paper. Tsurayuki is also known as a poet of considerable eminence, and as the author of the famous preface to the Kokinshiu, extolled by Japanese critics as the most perfect specimen of composition extant in the native style.