a reputation for learning, was begun in 1812. It is an attempt to harmonise the myths of the Kojiki, Nihongi, and other ancient books in a continuous and consistent narrative, written in the archaic dialect of the Kojiki. As these old stories differ very considerably among themselves, Hirata was naturally obliged to do them violence in order to make them agree, and scholars will prefer to go to his originals rather than accept his version of them. A higher value attaches to the Koshi-chō (eleven volumes, 1819), in which he gives an account of the authorities for the text of the Seibun; but his greatest contribution to our knowledge of Japanese antiquity is the Koshi-den, a commentary on the Seibun, in twenty-eight volumes, begun in 1812, but never completed. It covers only 143 sections of the 165 of which the Seibun consists. The Koshi-den stands next after Motoöri's Kojiki-den as a monument of Japanese old-world learning. It is indispensable to the student of Shinto.
The Tamadasuki (ten volumes) was composed originally in 1811, in a colloquial style, and rewritten in the literary dialect in 1824. It is a sort of breviary containing a set of prayers addressed to the very numerous deities of Shinto, intended, however, not for temple but for individual use. The prayers are accompanied by a considerable and very heterogeneous mass of commentary.
The Kodō Tai-i, or "Summary of the Ancient Way" (two volumes, 1811), states the principles of the Shinto religion in easy language and in a brief and intelligible form. It is very clearly printed, and forms an excellent introduction to the study of Shinto in its native language.
Hirata also published summaries of Chinese learning,
