Nihonshoki

(Chronicle of Japan). Oldest official history of Japan covering events from the mythical age of the gods up to the reign of the empress Jito (r 686697). The Nihon shoki was completed on 1 July 720. The Nihon shoki's 30 volumes plus 1 volume of genealogical charts are the work of many people, including Prince Toneri , a son of Emperor Temmu , and possibly Fujiwara no Fuhito , a powerful figure in the government. Although the official name of the work was Nihongi, other early documents refer to it as Nihon shoki.

CompilationThe process of compilation may be said to have begun in the 10th year of the reign of Temmu (681), when Prince Kawashima (657691), a son of the former emperor Tenji , and 11 others were ordered to draw up an official copy of the genealogy of the imperial family (see Teiki ) and various other ancient records. In 714 Ki no Kiyohito (d 753) and Miyake no Fujimaro (dates unknown) were added to the team.
Of the 30 volumes, written in classical Chinese, the first and second deal with mythical times and are known as Jindaiki. Volumes 3 to 30 cover events from the reign of Emperor Jimmu until that of Jito. The Nihon shoki differs from the earlier Kojiki in that it includes sections from the Chinese historical work Wei zhi (Wei chih) and the Korean works Paekche ki, Paekche pon'gi, and Paekche sinch'an (see Paekche ). It also includes quotations from the Iki no Muraji Hakatoko no fumi , an account by an official who visited Tang (T'ang) China, and the Ilbon segi (J: Nihon seiki), a history by the Korean monk Tohyön (J: Doken) from the kingdom of Koguryö. From volume 14 onward the accounts become increasingly detailed. Unlike the Kojiki the focus is on recent rather than mythical events.
CommentariesThe Nihon shoki was read and studied widely by government officials and intellectuals. Hizen no Kuni fudoki and Bungo no Kuni fudoki, gazetteers from the mid-8th century, both contain sections based on passages from the work. In addition the Koki (ca 738), a commentary on the Taiho Code , and annotations in the Man'yoshu include quotations from the Nihon shoki. The genealogical work Shinsen shojiroku (815) makes special mention of whether its information agrees with the Nihon shoki.

Several ancient manuscript copies of the Nihon shoki survive from the Nara (710794) and Heian (7941185) periods. Commentaries include the Shaku nihongi , compiled in the late 13th century. Beginning in the Kamakura period (11851333) the Nihon shoki came to be viewed as a Shinto sacred text; commentaries from these times include Imbe no Masamichi's Nihon shoki kuketsu and Ichijo Kaneyoshi 's Nihon shoki sanso. In the Edo period (16001868) academic research appeared, notably Nihon shoki tsusho by Tanigawa Kotosuga ; Shoki shikkai (or Shoki shuge) by Kawamura Hidene (172392) and his son Masune; Suzuki Shigetane 's commentary on the mythical sections, Nihon shoki den; and Ban Nobutomo 's exegesis of volume 28, Nagara no yamakaze. See also Rikkokushi .