Japan日本

Japan is the old Wano (倭奴). It is fourteen thousand li from the capital, straight to the south-east of Silla, out in the sea, and they live on islands. It is five months' journey from east to west and three months' journey from north to south. The country has no walled towns; they tie timbers together to make stockades and thatch their roofs with grass. There are more than fifty small islands to the left and right, and every one of them calls itself a country and attaches itself as a subject. They set up one honsotsu (本率) to inspect the several districts. In their customs there are many women and few men. They have writing, and they honour the law of the Buddha. Their offices are twelve grades.

The surname of the king is Ame (阿每). They say themselves that their first lord was called Ame no Minakanushi (天御中主), and that down to Hikonagisa (彥瀲) there were twenty-two generations in all, who all took "mikoto" (尊) as their title and lived in the fortress of Tsukushi. Hikonagisa's son Jinmu (神武) came to the throne and changed the title to "tennō", and moved his government to the province of Yamato. Next came Suizei, then Annei, then Itoku, then Kōshō, then Tenan, then Kōrei, then Kōgen, then Kaika, then Sujin, then Suinin, then Keikō, then Seimu, then Chūai. When Chūai died, they made Jingū, a great-granddaughter of Kaika, their ruler. Next came Ōjin, then Nintoku, then Richū, then Hanzei, then Ingyō, then Ankō, then Yūryaku, then Seinei, then Kenzō, then Ninken, then Buretsu, then Keitai, then Ankan, then Senka, then Kinmei.

The eleventh year of Kinmei is the first year of Chengsheng of Liang. Next came Bidatsu. Next came Yōmei, who is also called Metarishihiko, and this was the end of the Kaihuang period of Sui, when they first had dealings with China. Next came Sushun. When Sushun died, Suiko, a granddaughter of Kinmei, came to the throne. Next came Jomei, then Kōgyoku. In their customs they wear the hair in a mallet-shaped knot, with no cap and no belt, and they go barefoot. They cover the back with a broad cloth, and the noble use brocade. Women wear a skirt of one colour and a jacket long at the waist, and tie the hair behind. In the time of Yangdi, he gave their people caps of silk thread, adorned with gold and jade, and they made clothes of figured cloth and hung silver flowers at left and right, eight inches long, and marked the noble from the base by how many they wore.

In the fifth year of Zhenguan, under Taizong, they sent an envoy to the court, and the emperor pitied them for their distance and sent down an edict to the officers concerned that they should not be held to a yearly tribute. He sent Gao Renbiao, Prefect of Xinzhou, to instruct them, but Gao quarrelled over the rites with the king and they did not agree, and he would not proclaim the command of the Son of Heaven, and came back. A long while after, they sent up a letter again by way of the Silla envoy. In the early years of Yonghui their king Kōtoku came to the throne and changed the reign title to Hakuchi (白雉), and presented amber as big as a peck measure and agate as big as a five-pint vessel. At that time Silla was being harried by Goryeo and Baekje, and Gaozong sent down a sealed letter ordering Japan to send out troops and rescue Silla.

Not long after, Kōtoku died and his son Ame-toyotakara came to the throne. When he died, his son Tenji came to the throne. In the next year an envoy came to court together with men of the Emishi (蝦蛦). The Emishi also live on islands in the sea. That envoy's beard was about four feet long, and he wore an arrow in his hair, and he had a man carry a gourd on his head and stand several tens of paces off, and he shot at it and never missed. Tenji died and his son Tenmu came to the throne, and when he died his son Sōji came to the throne. In the first year of Xianheng they sent an envoy to congratulate the emperor on the pacifying of Goryeo. Later, as they learned a little of the speech of China, they came to dislike the name Wa and changed their name to Japan. Their envoy said of himself, "Our country is near where the sun comes out, and we took that for our name." Others say, "Japan was a small country, and it was taken into Wa, and so Wa took its name." The envoys do not speak from the truth, and therefore the matter is doubtful. They also boasted wildly that the capital of their country is several thousand li on each side, that the south and the west run out to the sea and the east and the north are bounded by great mountains, and that beyond them are the Hairy People (毛人).

In the first year of Chang'an their king Monmu came to the throne and changed the reign title to Taihō (大寶), and sent the ason mahito Awata (粟田) to present the goods of the country. The ason mahito is much the same as a minister of Tang. He wore a jinde cap, with four sprays of flowers opening at the crown, and a purple robe with a silk belt. Mahito loved learning and could compose writing, and there was dignity in his bearing. Empress Wu feasted him in the Linde Hall, gave him the office of Chamberlain of the Imperial Table, and sent him home. Monmu died and his son Ayō came to the throne, and when he died his son Shōmu came to the throne and changed the reign title to Hakki (白龜). In the early years of Kaiyuan, Awata came to court again and asked to receive the classics from the scholars, and by edict Zhao Xuanmo, assistant instructor of the School of the Four Gates, was made his teacher at the Court of State Ceremonial. He offered broad cloth as his gift of introduction, and everything he was given he spent on buying books to take home. His deputy, the ason Nakamaro, loved China and would not leave. He changed his name to Chao Heng (朝衡) and served as left rectifier of omissions and as companion to the Prince of Yi. He knew a great deal, and only after a long time did he go home.

Shōmu died and his daughter Kōmyō came to the throne and changed the reign title to Tenpyō Shōhō. In the twelfth year of Tianbao, Chao Heng came to the court again, and in the Shangyuan period he was raised to left cavalier attendant-in-ordinary and Protector General of Annam. Silla blocked the sea road, and so they came with tribute by way of Mingzhou and Yuezhou. Kōmyō died and Ōi came to the throne, and when he died they made Takano-hime, a daughter of Shōmu, their ruler. When she died, Shirakabe came to the throne. In the first year of Jianzhong the envoy, the mahito Kōnō, presented the goods of the country. Mahito is a family name taken, it seems, from an office. Kōnō wrote a fine hand, and his paper was like a silk cocoon and had a sheen to it, and no one could tell what it was. At the end of the Zhenyuan period their king Kanmu sent an envoy to the court. Their student Tachibana no Hayanari and the monk Kukai asked to stay and study, and after more than twenty years the envoy Takashina no Mahito came and asked that Hayanari and the others be allowed to go home with him, and by edict it was permitted.

Next Heizei came to the throne, then Saga, then Junna, then Ninmyō. Ninmyō is the fourth year of Kaicheng, when they brought tribute again. Next came Montoku, then Seiwa, then Yōzei. Next came Kōkō, and this is the first year of Guangqi. Among the islands of the eastern sea there are also three lesser kings, Yako, Haya and Tani. To the north they reach to Silla, to the north-west is Baekje, and to the south-west they come straight to Yuezhou, and it is said that silk thread and floss and strange treasures are found there.