occasion, but which, like those in Thucydides, have nevertheless a certain historical value. The serious way in which the commentators treat the Taiheiki's frequent excursions into the land of romance is not a little amusing.
The style of Kojima (if he is the author) has been condemned by native critics as inflated and pedantic. It must be admitted that there is not a little truth in these charges. The Taiheiki supplies abundant evidence of his erudition and command of all the resources of Chinese and Japanese rhetoric. His pages at times are highly charged with Chinese words and phrases, and fairly bristle with Chinese historical allusions and quotations. In this style of writing, a "bamboo grove" means a family of princes, a "pepper court" is put for the Imperial harem, "cloud guests" stand for courtiers, the Mikado's carriage is termed the "Phoenix Car," and his face the "Dragon Countenance." A fair lady is said to put to shame Mao Ts'iang and Si She, famous beauties of Chinese antiquity. Civil war is a time when "wolf-smoke obscures the heaven, and whale-waves shake the earth." Kojima does not hesitate even to insert long episodes of Chinese and Indian history which present some resemblance to the events which he is describing, especially if they lend themselves to romantic treatment.
Still more trying to the ordinary Western reader than his ostentatious display of Chinese learning is the Buddhist theology in which Kojima was plainly well versed, and of which there is more than enough in the Taiheiki. Students of the history of religion, however, will find this feature of the work interesting. Kojima is a typical case which illustrates the national propensity for compromise and arrangement in matters of faith. In
