Kojiki

Kojiki or Furukotofumi (古事記), also called in English the Records of Ancient Matters, is the oldest book known in Japan.^[1] It was written 712 CE, and dedicated to Empress Gemmei.^[1] The Kojiki is a book about Japanese mythology (Shinto), legends, songs, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 BCE.^[2] The book mixes the legends of first emperor of Japan and several others with stories about the gods. Therefore, it is difficult to know which parts of the Kojiki are real and which parts are legend. According to legend, all the emperors of Japan are descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

The Kojiki is written in Chinese, but the way the Japanese wrote it is by using the pronunciation of the Chinese characters and not the meanings of them. In other words, a person who can read Chinese will not be able to read the Kojiki unless they also know how to speak Japanese. It includes many Japanese names and some phrases.^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Shoki" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 545.
2. ↑ Jaroslav Průšek and Zbigniew Słupski, eds., Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: East Asia (Charles Tuttle, 1978): 140-141.