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no-Iwa-buye, and the Koshichô Kaidaiki; began a new edition of the Jimmei shiki, or list of Shintô temples and gods given in the Yengi shiki, drafted the Morokoshi Taiko-Den, a work on the ancient traditions of China, of which only the text and about one-fourth of the commentary have yet appeared, began the Indo Zôshi, which is said to have been intended for a complete treatise on Buddhism, and printed a short life of Sugawara Michizané under the title of Temman-gû Go-denki. In the year 1819 he completed the draft of his work on the Jindai no moji, or so-called native Japanese alphabet of the pre-historic age. This consists of two volumes entitled Jinji Hifumi Den and one entitled Giji Hen. The first contain some thirteen or fourteen tables of square and cursive characters; the latter is a collection of a number of specimens of widely different appearance, all of which are asserted to be native Japanese characters, but concerning whose genuineness Hirata does not venture to pronounce an opinion. The first thing that will strike any one who examines the square characters given in volume I. is their unmistakable identity with the Corean alphabet, the sole difference being that the Corean letters are combined so as to form the forty-seven syllables used in spelling Japanese words. The cursive forms, however, bear scarcely the remotest resemblance to the square, and it is difficult to suppose that they have a common origin. Having devoted several pages of volume I. of the Kaidaiki to the discussion of the evidence for the existence of an indigenous method of writing in pre-historic times, and having decided the question in the affirmative, Hirata does not think it worth while to entertain the suspicion that these so-called Jindai no moji have been copied from the Corean alphabet, but on the contrary maintains that the Coreans made their alphabet out of the Jindai no moji, and arbitrarily invented a number of additional signs to meet their own wants. He supposes that the jindai no moji must have been carried to Corea after its conquest by Jingô-kôgô (200 A.D.), and have been preserved there in some
