Preface

1I, Yasumaro, say: When chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was nothing named and nothing done, who could know its shape?

2Nevertheless, when heaven and earth first separated, the three creating deities performed the commencement of creation.

3The male and female were then established and the two producing spirits became the ancestors of all things.

4Therefore did he enter obscurity and find out the origin, enter antiquity and learn of the time when the earth was created and islands were generated.

5Hereupon, His Majesty the Emperor commanded: 'I hear that the chronicles which the various families hold, and likewise the words handed down, already differ from the truth.'

6'If at this time the errors be not amended, ere many years shall have elapsed, the purport of these things will be lost. This is the framework of the state, the great foundation of the imperial influence.'

7'So now I desire that the chronicles be selected and recorded, that the old words be examined and ascertained, falsehoods being erased and the truth determined, so that they may be transmitted to future generations.'