04a Imperial History [2] With there principles in mind, let us look at the reign of Empress Suiko (r. 554-628). This was the period when Prince Shoutoku, the gifted and brilliant leader, systematically adopted foreign progressive culture. There was a fresh start in politics, diplomacy, leaning, literature and technology. The time must have been regarded as the beginning of a new era, which must begin in kanoto-bird year. Therefore, the 9th year of the reign of Empress Suiko, which was kanoto-bird year, must have been considered the beginning of the new era. This meant that the history of Japan had completed its first cycle, and started the second. Retrospectively, the beginning of the first period had to be the time of founding the nation, by Emperor Jinmu. The year had to be kanoto-bird, and it must have been 1260 years before the 9th year of the reign of Empress Suiko. Based on such reasoning, the chronology of Chronicles of Japan (Nihon Shoki) was invented, and history was organized as follows: (1) the asccension of Emperor Jinmu was the kanoto-bird of the first imperial year. (2) the 8th year, kanoe-monkey year, of reign of Empress Suiko was the 1260th imperial year, which was a time of great social revolution. (3) the subsequent 9th year, which was kanoto-bird year, was the start of the new cycle. The above was based on the principles of interpretation of astronomical phenomena as the cause of earthly matters, which was widely practiced among the scholars of Chinese studies. But facts did not fit this chronology. The intercal of time between Emperor Jinmu and Empress Suiko was not so long. As the result of artificially lengthening the interval, the lifespans of the Emperor and the political actors had to be lengthened, to bring credibility to the chronology. Does it mean that the ancient Japanese history in these books is false, and cannot be trusted? No. The principles of chronology are wrong, and the lifespans are too long. But the principles of interpreting astronomical phenomena as the cause of earthly matters did not tamper with the historical events. If the compilers had really wanted to present a well-formulated chronology, they could have added some ten generations of imperial reigns, to make it forty-five to forty-six instead of thirty-three. This way, the lifespan problem would have worked out, and all fitted in logically. Yet they did not do this, resulting in this contradiction. Thus it seems that the content of the legends was left untouched. The contradictions appeared only in the lifespans. Let us now discuss the actual lengthening of Japanese ancient chronology. In China, kingdoms rose and fell many times. For each period, a history was written. Among them is History of Song Dynasty (Songshu). In this histry, there are entries on diplomatic relations getween Song Dynasty China and Japan, and we can see that thier second year of Yongchu era, which is 421 AD, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty China, corresponds to the reign of Emperor Nintoku in Japan. Enperor Nintoku is the sixteeth Enperor. So if we go back in time by fifteen generations, we should deduce the time of the reign of Emperor Jinmu. By common sense a generation is 30 years, and 30 years times 15 generations would give us a span of 450 years. Thus 450 years before 421 AD should be the time of the founding of Japan. The imperial years are stretched out by five to six hundred years. You might consider the Japanese imperial chronology to be superfluous, and suggest that we revise it. But this is similar to a mistaken birth registration. If it had come to be accepted over the years, revision would cause confusion . Moreover, we do not know how to revise it. And this problem is not confined to the Japanese imperial chronology. Worldwide, there are chronologies set up for nation, peoples, and religions. There is no way to prove that any one of them is factually accurate. Let us look at this 45th year of Shouwa, 1970. In foreign chronologies, it is: 2026th year in Hindi calendar; 1389th year in Islamic calendar; 5970th year in Freemason calendar; 5730th year in Jewish calendar; 7478th year in Justinian calendar; 7462th year in Alexandrian calendar; 2281th year in Macedonian calendar; 2008th year in Spanish calendar; 1339th year in Persian calendar; 1970th year in Christian calendar (AD). What is yuor impression looking at the above? You might consider all of them untrustworthy, escept the last Christian chronology. But even Christian chronology differs the facts. The first year is set at the birth of Christ. However, Christ was not born 1 AD; the actual time of his birth cannot be ascertained. It might be 2 BC, 4 BC, 5 BC, 6 BC, 7 BC amd so on, depending on the positions of scholars. This example shows that for events that took place two thousand, or three thousand years ago, it is difficult to identify accurately the dates and years. It was not uncommon for lifespans to be stretched out as in the ancient history of Japan. It should be attributed to the principles of interpreting astronomical phenomena as the cause of earthly matters, and not to Japanese history itself. This 45th year of Shouwa, which is the 2630th imperial year, is off by about 500 years. This points to the antiquity of Japanese history. It should be regarded as a delightful matter, rather than one for concern.

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