Japan's oldest book was dictated from one courtier's extraordinary memory
The Kojiki, Japan's oldest surviving literary work, began not with a scribe but with a memoriser. An emperor ordered a court attendant with a remarkable memory to learn the royal traditions by heart. Decades later another courtier wrote them down, producing in 712 a book that fused myth, genealogy and politics.
Its title means Records or An Account of Ancient Matters. The book gathers myths, hymns, genealogies and semi-historical tales about the origins of the islands, the kami and the imperial line. According to its preface, Emperor Tenmu, who reigned from 673 to 686, ordered clan documents to be checked for errors and had the attendant Hieda no Are memorise the imperial traditions. Nothing more happened until Empress Genmei, in 711, instructed the courtier O no Yasumaro to record what Hieda had learned. He wrote in Classical Chinese and presented the finished work early in 712.
Earlier attempts had not survived. In 620 Prince Shotoku and Soga no Umako oversaw a compilation that included a Record of the Emperors and a National Record. When Soga no Emishi's estate burned during the Isshi incident of 645, only the National Record escaped, and it too was soon lost.
The Kojiki was never a neutral chronicle. It stitched rival traditions into one official mythology that presented the Yamato rulers as descendants of heavenly gods and rightful owners of the land. Long genealogies lent the dynasty an antiquity that may not match reality and linked other clans to it, giving them a stake in the national story. The Izumo lineage's local myths were absorbed precisely so they could be subordinated. Tellingly, the text never mentions Buddhism, despite Tenmu's personal devotion to it, one reason scholars read it as myth rather than history.
The Nihon Shoki, finished in 720, offers a contrast. Modelled on Chinese dynastic histories, it was meant to impress foreign envoys and drew on varied sources, including Chinese texts. The Kojiki looks inward, written for the court and its clans. Its stories later fed into Shinto practice, including the misogi purification ritual.
Source: Kojiki
