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context: literature > ancient
Kojiki
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The Record of Ancient Matters, edited by O no Yasumaro and finished around 712AD, is the history of the country. This does not mean it can be read as fact: the early history is all mythology, and that angle does not vanish completely as it gets closer to the contemporary. Its level of rigorous accuracy can be suggested by the fact that it contains the tale of Urashimako, which may be the world's first time travel story.
It is written in Japanese, via the laborious method of using Chinese characters to each signify a syllable.