Kojiki

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Kojiki, Shinpukuji manuscript

The Kojiki ( Japanese 古 事 記 , Eng. "Record of old events"), rarely also in the Kun reading Furukotofumi , describes the mythology and early history of Japan from the mythical age of the gods to the time of Empress Suiko . At that time, it primarily served to legitimize the ruling house. It is not only the first extensive written source in Japan, but also contains the first evidence of the Japanese language ( Old Japanese ). Although the majority of the text is written in classical Chinese , in some places, especially poetic passages, the characters are not used in their sense, but with their phonetic value to denote the Japanese spoken at the time. Older sources of evidence are just some of the texts written by the Japanese in Classical Chinese , namely Buddhist religious treatises and government edicts.

Overview

The Kojiki was written down by Ō no Yasumaro , a scribe at court, around the year 712 and divided into three fascicles. The text was dictated by the traditional master Hieda no Are , a confidante of Emperor Temmus , who learned Japanese mythology by heart on his behalf . It is unclear whether Hieda no Are was a man or a woman, the name allows both possibilities.

In the first fascicle, the Kojiki describes the creation of heaven and earth (i.e. Japan), which were "created" by the primordial gods Izanagi and Izanami . The most famous children of the pair of primeval gods are the sun goddess Amaterasu and her brother Susanoo , who appears partly as a storm god, partly as a trickster figure and after a conflict with his sister descends on earth and finally into the realm of the dead. Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi also descends to earth and establishes the dynasty of the Japanese Tennō (who trace their family tree directly back to the sun goddess to this day). The last two fascicles are dedicated to the reigns of the individual Tennos, but here too most of the stories, especially the second fascicle, are more likely to be assigned to the mythological area.

In 720 the Nihonshoki was created , a work of similar content, which, however, is written entirely in Chinese and is more detailed and based more on real historical data. The Nihonshoki has long been considered the more important source. It was only through the studies of Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), through which the primitive language of Kojiki was emphasized, that this work gained a new appreciation. In the school of the Kokugaku it was regarded as a true, infallible source and functionalized as the central script for the Shinto constructed at the same time . After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 , it served as a template for the establishment of the state and State Shinto . Some of the Shinto New Religions consider the Kojiki to be holy scripture , although traditional Shinto has no scriptures.

The first German translation was done in 1901 by Karl Florenz in excerpts. In 1976 Iwao Kinoshita published a complete translation as the third volume after a new edition of the Japanese text (1940) and its transliteration (1940). In 2012, Klaus Antoni submitted a new translation with extensive commentary.

See also

literature

Web links