The study of such a subject is rather dry and uninteresting, but it is necessary for any one who wishes to make himself acquainted with Japanese history, either of the past or of the present day, to read and understand this book. What here follows is only a rough sketch with a little further filling in. In what may be called the preface to the “Shoku gen sho”--a slight historical introduction--the author says: “We gather from old records, that in the time of Sui ko (the first Empress), in the twelfth year of her reign, A.D. 605, Sho toku, being prime minister, settled twelve grades of officers. Afterward, the Emperor Kwo toku, in the fifth year of his reign (A.D. 650), divided the country into eight provinces (or divided the government into eight departments), and definitely fixed the offices. Subsequently, in the first year of the Emperor Mun moo (A.D. 697), Fusiwara no tan kaiko Kamatariko (canonized as Kassunga dia mio jin) was appointed great minister, and by him laws were made and the officers and nobles were appointed. At one time the numbers were greatly diminished, and again they were increased, and fresh officers, ‘uncommissioned,’ got employment. But the ministers, the ‘Nai dai jin’ and the ‘Chiu nagoon,’ existed before the first year of Mun moo. But authentic records of that period do not remain in existence at the present time. In old times there was a separate office of religion known as the ‘Jin ngi kwang’ or ‘Kami no tskasa,’ answering to the ‘Ta chang sz’ in China. The two officers who superintended the rites in worship of the gods were above all other officers. This was the pristine custom in the kingdom of spirits (Japan), arising from the reverence paid to the gods of heaven and the spirits of earth. “In the earliest times the Emperor Zinmu established the capital within the bounds of the province of Yamato, at Kashiwarra. At that time, in the beginning, Ten shio dai shin (the heaven-illuminating spirit) came down and placed three things--a ball or seal, an eight-cubit mirror, and a grass-shaving sword--in the palace, on the throne of the Emperor, which received homage such as was offered in early times. The efficacy of the spirit was great, so that the Emperor dwelling with the spirit was, as it were, equal to a god. Within the palace these three emblems were placed in safety, that it might be said that where these are there is divine power. At this time two high officers, ‘Ama no koya ne no mikoto’ and ‘Ama no tane ko mikoto,’ regulated the sacrificial rites and court ceremonies, until the time of the Emperor Soui-zin (97-30 B.C.), who, fearing the majesty of the divinity, took away these three efficacious symbols, the sword and the seal and the mirror, and put them elsewhere (_i.e._, in a palace he built at Miako); which was the origin of the idea of the Emperor’s sitting like a god in the place of a god.