But it is alleged* that
medicines for internal and external use were in existence and that
recourse to thermal springs was commonly practised from remote times.

*By the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku.

PICTORIAL ART

While Yuryaku was on the throne, Korea and China sent pictorial
experts to Japan. The Korean was named Isuraka, and the Chinese,
Shinki. The latter is said to have been a descendant of the Emperor
Wen of the Wei dynasty. His work attracted much attention in the
reign of Muretsu, who bestowed on him the uji title of Ooka no Obito.
His descendants practised their art with success in Japan, and from
the time of the Emperor Tenchi (668-671) they were distinguished as
Yamato no eshi (painters of Yamato).

POETRY

If we credit the annals, the composition of poetry commenced in the
earliest ages and was developed independently of foreign influences.
From the sovereign down to the lowest subject, everyone composed
verses. These were not rhymed; the structure of the Japanese language
does not lend itself to rhyme. Their differentiation from prose
consisted solely in the numerical regularity of the syllables in
consecutive lines; the alternation of phrases of five and seven
syllables each. A tanka (short song) consisted of thirty-one
syllables arranged thus, 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7; and a naga-uta (long
song) consisted of an unlimited number of lines, all fulfilling the
same conditions as to number of syllables and alternation of phrases.
No parallel to this kind of versification has been found yet in the
literature of any other nation. The Chronicles and the Records abound
with tanka and naga-uta, many of which have been ascribed by skeptics
to an age not very remote from the time when those books were
compiled. But the Japanese themselves think differently. They connect
the poems directly with the events that inspired them. Further
reference to the subject will be made hereafter. Here it will suffice
to note that the composing of such verselets was a feature of every
age in Japan.

UTA-GAKI

A favourite pastime during the early historic period was known as
uta-gaki or uta-kai. In cities, in the country, in fields, and on
hills, youths and maidens assembled in springtime or in autumn and
enjoyed themselves by singing and dancing. Promises of marriage were
exchanged, the man sending some gifts as a token, and the woman, if
her father or elder brother approved, despatching her head-ornament
(oshiki no tamakatsura) to he