the partisans of the “Records” and those of the “Chronicles,” some flaw in the former’s title to genuineness and to priority should not have been discovered and pointed out if it existed.
During the Middle Ages, when no native Japanese works were printed, and not many others excepting the Chinese Classics and Buddhist Scriptures, the “Records of Ancient Matters” remained in manuscript in the hands of the Shintō priesthood. They were first printed in the year 1644, at the time when, peace having been finally restored to the country and the taste for reading having become diffused, the great mass of the native literature first began to emerge from the manuscript state. This very rare edition (which was reprinted in fac-simile in 1798) is indispensable to anyone who would make of the “Records” a special study. The next edition was by a Shintō priest, Deguchi Nobuyoshi, and appeared in 1687. It has marginal notes of no great value, and several emendations of the text. The first-mentioned of these two editions is commonly called the “Old Printed Edition” (舊印木), but has no title beyond that of the original work,—“Records of Ancient Matters.” The name of the other is “Records of Ancient Matters with Marginal Readings” (鼇頭古事記). Each is in three volumes. They were succeeded in 1789–1822 by Motowori’s great edition, entitled “Exposition of the Records of Ancient Matters” (古事記傳). This, which is perhaps the most admirable work of which Japanese erudition can boast, consists of forty-four large volumes, fifteen of which are devoted to the elucidation of the first volume of the original, seventeen to the second, ten to the third, and the rest to prolegomena, indexes, etc. To the ordinary student this Commentary will furnish all that he requires, and the charm of Motowori’s style will be found to shed a glamour over the driest parts of the original work. The author’s judgment only seems to fail him occasionally when confronted with the most difficult or corrupt passages, or with such as might be construed in a sense unfavourable to his predilections as an ardent Shintoist. He frequently quotes the opinions of his master Mabuchi, whose own treatise on this subject is so rare that the present writer has never seen a copy of it, nor does the public library of Tōkiō possess one. Later and less important editions are the “Records of Ancient Matters with the Ancient Reading” (古訓古事記), a reprint by one of Motowori’s pupils of the Chinese text and
