xxxii
“Ko-ji-ki,” or Records of Ancient Matters.
silkworm, to winch reference has already been made.[1] In the later portions of the “Records” and “Chronicles”, dogs and cattle are alluded to; but sheep, swine, and even cats were apparently not yet introduced. Indeed sheep were scarcely to be seen in Japan until a few years ago, goats are still almost unknown, and swine and all poultry excepting the barn-door fowl are extremely uncommon.
The following enumeration of the animals and plants mentioned in the earlier portion[2] of the “Records” may be of interest. The Japanese equivalents, some few of which are obsolete, are put in parenthesis, together with the Chinese characters used to write them:
Mammals.
- Bear, (kuma 熊).
- Boar, (wi 猪).
- Deer, (shika 鹿.)
- Hare, (usagi 兎.)
- Horse, (uma 馬 and koma 駒).
- Mouse or Rat, (nedzumi 鼠).
- “Sea-ass” [Seal or Sea-lion?] (michi 海驢).
- Whale, (kujira 鯨).
Birds.
- Barndoor-fowl, (kake 鷄).
- Cormorant, (u 鵜).
- Crow or Raven, (karasu 烏).
- Dotterel or Plover or Sand-piper, (chi-dori 千鳥).
- Heron or Egret (sagi 鷺).
- Kingfisher (soni-dori 翠鳥).
- Nuye, (鵺).[3]
- Pheasant (kigishi 雉).
- Snipe, (shigi 鴫).
- Swan, (shiro-tori 白鳥).
- Wild-duck, (kamo 鴨).
- Wild-goose, (kari 鴈).
- ↑ The tradition preserved in Sect. CXXIV, shows that in times almost, if nut quite, historical (the 4th century of our era) the silkworm was a curious novelty, apparently imported from Korea. It is not only possible, but probable, that silken fabrics were occasionally imported into Japan from the mainland at an earlier period, which would account for the mention of “silk rugs” in Sects XL and LXXXIV.
- ↑ The (necessarily somewhat arbitrary) line between earlier and later times has been drawn at the epoch of the traditional conquest of Korea by the Empress Jin-gō at the commencement of the third century of our era, it being then, accordding to the received opinions, that the Japanese first came in contact with their continental neighbours, and began to borrow from them. (See however the concluding Section of this Introduction for a demonstration of the untrustworthiness of all the so-called history of Japan down to the commencement of the fifth century of the Christian era.)
- ↑ See Sect. XXIV, Note 4.
