Kyūji

, is an ancient Japanese historical text. Its existence is recorded in the "Kojiki" which claims to have been composed based on its contents. No extant copies are known to exist anymore.

According to the Kojiki preface, Emperor Tenmu said:

What I hear is that the "Teiki" and "Honji" brought about by the many houses already differ from the truth and contain many inaccuracies. Should those mistakes not be corrected now, the original meaning will be lost within but a few years. They are the basis of the national system and are the foundation of the imperial government. Thus, I would like to carefully examine the "Teiki" and "Kyūji", remove the errors, and establish the truth for future generations. [Kurano, page 45-47] Yamaguchi, page 21-23]

The preface goes on to state that the emperor dictates the "Teiki" and "Kyūji" to Hieda no Are, but that the emperor passes away before the task is completed. The task was revived several years later during the reign of Empress Gemmei:

At this point, regretting the errors and differences in the "Kyūji", the Empresses tries to fix the errors and differences in the "Senki", and on the ninth month and the eighteenth day of fourth year of Wadō [=711] she says to Yasumaro: "I command you to record the imperial "Kyūji" that Hieda no Are learned." [Kurano, page 47] [Yamaguchi, page 23-24]

Contents

As the text no longer exists, very little is actually known about it. The "Kojiki" preface states that differing versions existed with each clan, and that these differences were corrected by the imperial line. The preface also states that it was one of the primary resources in the composition of the "Kojiki", thus there must have been some overlap between the two, and most likely contained legendary accounts. [Yamaguchi, page 22]

Notes

References

* cite book
last = Kurano
first = Kenji
authorlink =
coauthors = Yūkichi Takeda
title = Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Kojiki
publisher = Iwanami Shoten
date = 1958
location = Tōkyō
pages =
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 4-00-060001-X
* cite book
last = Yamaguchi
first = Yoshinori
authorlink =
coauthors = Takamitsu Kōnoshi
title = Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū: Kojiki
publisher = Shogakukan
date = 1997
location = Tōkyō
pages =
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 4-09-658001-5