in the native language, and that of books written in Classical Chinese. Chinese has been generally preferred for grave subjects,—law, for instance, and history; Japanese for poetry, romance, and other branches of belles-lettres. Sir Ernest Satow, following the native authorities, classifies Japanese literature under sixteen heads, which are:
I. Standard Histories. Besides the Kojiki and Nihongi already mentioned, the most important standard history is the Dai Nihonshi This huge work in one hundred volumes was compiled at the end of the seventeenth century by a whole company of Japanese and Chinese men of learning, under the general superintendence of the second Prince of Mito, who was a munificent patron of literature.
II. Miscellaneous Historical Works, that is, histories written by private persons and therefore devoid of official sanction. Such are the Mitsu Kagami, the Gempei Seisuiki, the Heike Mono-gatari, the Taiheiki, and a host of others, concluding with the Nihon Gwaishi, which, a few years ago, was in every educated person's hands, and which, by its fanatically Imperialist sentiments, contributed in no small measure to bring about the fall of the Shōgunate.—All Japanese histories are written in a style which repels the European reader. They are, for the most part, annals rather than histories properly so-called. Sir Ernest Satow's translation of the first five books of the Nihon Gwaishi should be glanced through by any one who doubts this assertion. He will find it almost impossible to bring himself to believe that a book so intolerably dry could ever have fired a whole nation with enthusiasm. That it did so is one of the curiosities of literature.
III. Laws. The Ryō no Gige and the Engi-shiki are the works in this division which are most often quoted.
IV. Biography.
V. Poetry. (See special Article on this subject.)
VI. Classical Romances. This is the most curious department of standard Japanese literature, lifting, as it does, the curtain from the long-forgotten life of the Japanese Court of the tenth and
