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ous faults in the kana transcription. The second was published later in the same century by Deguchi Nobuyoshi, who corrected most of the omissions and errors of the older edition, but took upon himself to make some unnecessary alterations in the text, thus diminishing to a considerable extent the value of his work. Besides these two printed editions Motoöri obtained after much search an old manuscript copy, unfortunately disfigured by a multitude of mistakes, a copy of a manuscript with insertions by Nobuyoshi, an old copy belonging to a Kiôto resident named Murai, and a copy of an ancient manuscript belonging to the monastery of Shimpukuji at Nagoya in Owari, all more or less incorrect, but useful for comparison.
The Kojikiden consists of forty-four large volumes of clear print, of which two are devoted to prolegomena, three to indexes arranged chronologically and alphabetically, and one contains a tract on the Cosmogony by Hatori Nakatsune, one of Motoöri’s pupils.
The earliest work of Motoöri upon Shintô was the tract entitled Nawobi no Mitama, or the “Spirit of Straightening,” which forms part of the first volume of the Kojiki-Den, and was written in the year 1771, about seven years after the commentary was commenced. It may be summarized as follows.
Japan is the country which gave birth to the goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu-oho-mi-kami, which fact proves its superiority over all other countries which also enjoy her favours. The goddess, having endowed her grandson Ninigi no mikoto with the three sacred treasures, proclaimed him sovereign of Japan for ever and ever. His descendants shall continue to rule it as long as the heavens and earth endure. Being invested with this complete authority, all the gods under heaven and all mankind submitted to him, with the exception of a few wretches who were quickly subdued.
To the end of time each Mikado is the goddess’ son. His mind is in perfect harmony of thought and feeling with hers. He does not seek out new inventions, but rules in accordance with precedents which date from the age of
