comparison with the contemporary histories of Corea and China, and an examination of the Nihongi itself yields many more. The impossible lengths attributed to the Emperors' reigns are a well-known example, and some, but by no means all, of the other evidence to this effect is indicated in the notes to the present version.
The first date in the Nihongi which is corroborated by external evidence is A.D. 461, but the chronology is not a little vague for some time longer. Perhaps if we take A.D. 500 as the time when the correctness of the Nihongi dates begins to be trustworthy, we shall not be very far wrong.
In an essay contributed to a Japanese magazine called Bun, in 1888, Mr. Naka has brought together absolutely overwhelming evidence of the utter inaccuracy in matters of chronology of the early part of the Nihongi, and I may be allowed to refer the reader to a paper on "Early Japanese History" read before the J.A.S. in December, 1887, in which the same thesis is maintained. Such scholars as Satow, Chamberlain, Bramsen, Griffis and others have expressed themselves to a similar effect, and it may be hoped that we have now heard the last of the thoughtless echoes of old Kaempfer's audacious assertion that since the time of Jimmu Tennō, the Japanese have been "accurate and faithful in writing the history of their country and the lives and reigns of their monarchs."
But enough has been said of the defects of the Nihongi. The above strictures apply almost exclusively to the earlier half of the work, and they must not be allowed to blind us to the fact that it after all presents a very full and varied picture of the civilization, manners and customs, and political, moral, and religious ideas of the ancient Japanese. Even the large untrue element which it contains is not without its value. Bad history may be good mythology or folk-lore, and statements the most wildly at variance with fact often throw a useful light on the beliefs or institutions of the age when they became current.
Estimation in which the Nihongi was held.—The importance of the Nihongi was at once recognized by the somewhat narrow circle of courtiers and officials for whom it was intended. Subsequent history contains frequent mention of its being publicly read and expounded to the
