Q 01/05

Which two 8th-century texts are the oldest sources of Japanese mythology?

A) Kojiki and Nihon Shoki

B) Man'yōshū and Fudoki

C) Shintōshū and Kojiki

D) Nihongi and Genji

Answer · why

A) Kojiki and Nihon Shoki

They were completed in 712 and 720 under the Yamato state.

Q 02/05

Who wrote down the Kojiki in 712 at the request of Empress Genmei?

A) Motoori Norinaga

B) Ō no Yasumaro

C) Hieda no Are

D) Prince Toneri

Answer · why

B) Ō no Yasumaro

He recorded what the courtier Hieda no Are had memorised on Emperor Tenmu's orders.

Q 03/05

Which court attendant of 'exceptional memory' was told to memorise the imperial records?

A) Prince Toneri

B) Kibi no Makibi

C) Hieda no Are

D) Ō no Yasumaro

Answer · why

C) Hieda no Are

Emperor Tenmu commissioned the feat; the writing-down came decades later.

Q 04/05

The Nihon Shoki was completed in 720 under whose editorial supervision?

A) Ō no Yasumaro

B) Empress Genshō

C) Emperor Tenmu

D) Prince Toneri

Answer · why

D) Prince Toneri

It was written in classical Chinese so it could stand beside the Chinese annals.

Q 05/05

Which Edo-period scholar's Kojiki-den commentary shaped modern understanding of the myths?

A) Motoori Norinaga

B) Hirata Atsutane

C) Kamo no Mabuchi

D) Arai Hakuseki

Answer · why

A) Motoori Norinaga

Before his work the Kojiki was widely seen as inferior to the Nihon Shoki.