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ed. Now, even allowing that the Chinese system of writing was introduced in the reign of Ôjin Tennô, the documents which Hiyeda no Ave committed to memory must have been produced after that time, and for the period of about a thousand years which is calculated to have elapsed between Jimmu and Ôjin and the immense period called the “age of the gods” which preceded Jimmu’s reign, no written records can have existed at all, since there was no native system of writing in use in ancient times.[1] The stories told us about the earlier ages must have been invented by the Mikados. The name of Amaterasu is probably a posthumous title conferred at a later period. If the sun-goddess is the real sun in heaven, it must have been quite dark before she was born; and yet it is stated that before she was born there were trees and plants, clothing, weapons, boats and buildings. If all these things existed before her birth, it seems probable that both sun and moon likewise preceded that event. It is curious that the stars are not mentioned in the Jindai no maki. To say that the sun was born in Japan is a fiction which was probably invented by the earlier Mikados in order to support the assertion that this country is the root and all other countries only branches. The gods in heaven make no difference between different races of mankind, who are formed into separate nations by the seas and mountain ranges which divide them off from each other, and the sun shines equally over all.
During the thousand years or so which are said to have elapsed between the reigns of Jimmu and Ôjin there were no written characters, and no cyclical signs by which time could be measured and its lapse recorded. Men knew that it was spring by the blossoming of the flowers, and that autumn had arrived by the leaves falling from the trees. The statement that a thousand years did actually elapse cannot be accepted with confidence.
The Japanese word kami was simply a title of honour, but in consequence of its having been used to translate
- ↑ Hirata Atsutane has made an attempt to prove the genuine character of the jindai no moji, which will be noticed further on.
