than the _Kojiki_, perhaps because of its
more learned and classical style.

Besides these two historical works the student of early times finds his
chief assistance in the Shinto rituals(31) contained in a work called
_Yengishiki_ (_Code of Ceremonial Law_). They have been in part translated
by Mr. Satow, who for many years was the learned Japanese secretary of the
British legation, and who read two papers on them before the Asiatic
Society of Japan, and afterward prepared an article on the same subject
for the _Westminster Review_.(32)

It will be apparent from these circumstances that the knowledge of the
earlier events, indeed of all preceding the ninth century, must be derived
from tradition and cannot claim the same certainty as when based on
contemporaneous documents. Not only the whole of the so-called divine age,
but the reigns of the emperors from Jimmu to Richu, must be reckoned as
belonging to the traditional period of Japanese history, and must be
sifted and weighed by the processes of reason.

Relying on the narratives of the _Kojiki_ and the _Nihongi_, Japanese
scholars have constructed a table of the emperors which has been accepted
by the great mass of the readers, both foreign and native. It will be
found in the Appendix.(33) It must be remembered that the names of these
early emperors, their ages at the time of accession and at the time of
death, and the length of reign, must have all been handed down by
tradition during almost a thousand years. That errors and uncertainties
should have crept in seems inevitable. Either the names and order of the
successive emperors, or the length of time during which they reigned would
be liable to be misstated. If we examine the list of emperors(34) we find
that the ages at death of the first seventeen, beginning with Jimmu and
ending with Nintoku, sum up 1853 years, with an average of 109 years(35)
for each. The age of Jimmu is given as 127 years; of Koan 137 years, of
Korei 128 years, of Keiko 143 years, of Nintoku, the last, 110 years, etc.
Then suddenly the ages of the emperors from Richu onward drop to 67, 60,
80, 56, etc., so that the ages of the seventeen emperors, beginning with
Richu, have an average of only 61-1/2 years. This reasonable average extends
down through the long series to the present time. It is plain that up to
this time there must have existed a different system of reckoning the ages
than that which pertained afterwards. Either the original