It was under the auspices of an empress (Suiko) that the first historical manuscript is said to have been compiled in 620. It was under the auspices of an empress (Gemmyo) that the _Record of Ancient Matters_ was transcribed (712) from the lips of a court lady. And it was under the auspices of an empress that the _Chronicles of Japan_ were composed (720). To women, indeed, from the 8th century onwards may be said to have been entrusted the guardianship of the pure Japanese language, the classical, or Chinese, form being adopted by men. The distinction continued throughout the ages. To this day the spoken language of Japanese women is appreciably simpler and softer than that of the men, and to this day while the educated woman uses the hiragana syllabary in writing, eschews Chinese words and rarely pens an ideograph, the educated man employs the ideograph entirely, and translates his thoughts as far as possible into the mispronounced Chinese words without recourse to which it would be impossible for him to discuss any scientific subject, or even to refer to the details of his daily business. Japan was thus enriched with two works of very high merit, the _Genji Monogatari_ (c. 1004) and the _Makura no Zoshi_ (about the same date). The former, by Murasaki no Shikibu--probably a pseudonym--was the first novel composed in Japan. Before her time there had been many _monogatari_ (narratives), but all consisted merely of short stories, mythical or quasi-historical, whereas Murasaki no Shikibu did for Japan what Fielding and Richardson did for England. Her work was "a prose epic of real life," the life of her hero, _Genji_. Her language is graceful and natural, her sentiments are refined and sober; and, as Mr Aston well says, her "story flows on easily from one scene of real life to another, giving us a varied and minutely detailed picture of life and society in Kioto, such as we possess for no other country at the same period." The _Makura no Zoshi (Pillow Sketches)_, like the _Genji Monogatari_, was by a noble lady--Sei Shonagon--but it is simply a record of daily events and fugitive thoughts, though not in the form of a diary. The book is one of the most natural and unaffected compositions ever written. Undesignedly it conveys a wonderfully realistic picture of aristocratic life and social ethics in Kioto at the beginning of the 11th century. "If we compare it with anything that Europe has to show at this period, it must be admitted that it is indeed a remarkable work. What a revelation it would be if we had the court life of Alfred's or Canute's reign depicted to us in a similar way?" The Dark Age.