his adventures
before ascending the throne, a few paragraphs suffice for all that is
subsequently related of him. While residing in Kyushu he married and
had two sons, the elder of whom, Tagishi-mimi, accompanied him on his
eastward expedition. In Yamato he married again and had three sons,
the youngest of whom succeeded to the throne. The bestowing of titles
and rewards naturally occupied much attention, and to religious
observances scarcely less importance seems to have been attached. All
references to these latter show that the offices of priest and king
were united in the sovereign of these days. Thus it was by the
Emperor that formulae of incantation to dissipate evil influences
were dictated; that sacrifices were performed to the heavenly Kami so
as to develop filial piety; and that shrines were consecrated for
worshiping the Imperial ancestors. Jimmu was buried in a tumulus
(misasagi) on the northeast of Mount Unebi. The site is officially
recognized to this day, and on the 3rd of April every year it is
visited by an Imperial envoy, who offers products of mountain, river,
and sea.

TRACES OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE

What traces of Chinese or foreign influence are to be found in the
legends and myths set down above? It is tolerably certain that
communication existed between China and Japan from a date shortly
prior to the Christian era, and we naturally expect to find that
since China was at that time the author of Asiatic civilization, she
contributed materially to the intellectual development of her island
neighbour. Examining the cosmogonies of the two countries, we find at
the outset a striking difference. The Chinese did not conceive any
creator, ineffable, formless, living in space; whereas the Japanese
imagined a great central Kami and two producing powers, invisible and
working by occult processes.

On the other hand, there is a marked similarity of thought. For, as
on the death of Panku, the giant toiler of Chinese myth on whom
devolved the task of chiselling out the universe, his left eye was
transmitted into the orb of day and his right into the moon, so when
the Japanese Kami returned from his visit to the underworld, the sun
emerged from the washing of his left eye and the moon from the
washing of his right. Japanese writers have sought to differentiate
the two myths by pointing out that the sun is masculine in China and
feminine in Japan, but such an objection is inadequate to impair the
close resembl