for instance, that of the curious curse pronounced by the younger brother Ho-wori on the elder Ho-deri—are repeated more than once exemplifies a less intelligent revision.[1] Under this heading may, perhaps, be included the legends of the conquest of Yamato by the Emperor Jim-mu and of the conquest of the same country by the Empress Jin-gō, which certainly bear a suspicious likeness to each other. Of the subjection of Korea by this last-named personage it should be observed that the Chinese and Korean histories, so far as they are known to us, make no mention, and indeed the dates, as more specifically given in the “Chronicles,” clearly show the inconsistency of the whole story; for Jin-gō’s husband, the Emperor Chiū-ai, is said to have been born in the 19th year of the reign of Sei-mu, i.e. in A. D. 149, while his father, Prince Yamato-Take, is said to have died in the 43rd year of Kei-kō, i.e. in A. D. 113, so that there is an interval of thirty-six years between the death of the father and the birth of the son![2]
One peculiarly interesting piece of information to be derived from a careful study of the “Records” and “Chronicles” (though it is one on which the patriotic Japanese commentators preserve complete silence) is that, at the very earliest period to which the twilight of legend stretches back, Chinese influence had already begun to make itself felt in these islands, communicating to the inhabitants both implements and ideas. This is surely a fact of very particular importance, lending, as it does, its weight to the mass of evidence which goes to prove that in almost all known cases culture has been introduced from abroad, and has not been spontaneously developed. The traces of Chinese influence are indeed not numerous, but they are unmistakable. Thus we find chopsticks mentioned both in the Idzumo and in the Kiushiu legendary cycle. The legend of the birth of the Sun-Goddess and
- ↑ See this legend as first given in Sects. XL and XLI. and afterwards in quite another context in Sect. CXVI. The way in which “One account” of the “Chronicles of Japan” tells the story of the ravages committed on the fields of the Sun-Goddess by her brother, the “Impetuous Male Deity,” might perhaps justify the opinion that that likewise is but the same tale in another form. The legend is evidently a very important one.
- ↑ The translator’s attention was drawn to the inconsistency of these dates by Mr. Ernest Satow.
