through Korea, were first introduced into Japan. Japanese nobles now began to learn to read and write, a task of enormous difficulty in the Chinese system. But the records themselves have long since perished, and if they contained any knowledge of mathematics, or if any mathematics from China at that time reached the shores of Japan, all knowledge of this fact has probably gone forever. Nevertheless there is always preserved in the language of a people a great amount of historical material, and from this and from folklore and tradition we can usually derive some little knowledge of the early life and customs and number-science of any nation.
So it is with Japan. There seems to have been a number mysticism there as in all other countries. There was the usual reaching out after the unknown in the study of the stars, of the elements, and of the essence of life and the meaning of death. The general expression of wonder that comes from the study of number, of forms, and of the arrangements of words and objects, is indicated in the language and the traditions of Japan as in the language and traditions of all other peoples. Thus we know that the Jindai monji, “letters of the era of the gods”,[1] go back to remote times, and this suggests an early cabala, very likely with its usual accompaniment of number values to the letters; but of positive evidence of this fact we have none, and we are forced to rely at present only upon conjecture.[2]
Practically only one definite piece of information has come
- ↑ Nothing definite is known as to these letters, They may have been different alphabetic forms. Monji (or moji) means letters, Jin is god, and dai is the age or era. The expression may also be rendered “letters of the age of heros”, using the term hero to mean a mythological semi-divinity, as it is used in early Greek lore.
- ↑ There is here, howewer, an excellent field for some Japanese scholar to search the native folklore for new material. Our present knowledge of the Jindai comes chiefly from a chapter in the Nihon-gi (Records of Japan) entitled Jindai wo Maki (Records of the Gods’ Age), written by Prince Toneri Shinnō in 720. This is probably based upon early legends handed down by the Kataribe, a class of men who in ancient times transmitted the legends orally, somewhat like the old English bards.
