Japan and the Japanese

428 JAPAN. A. IX 17791791.
and originals.* These memoirs profess to be compiled from Japanese
manuscripts, of which Titsingh gives the
following account
" Since the accession of Gongin, founder of the present dynasty,
the printing of any work relating to the government has been
prohibited. The curious, however, possess manuscript accounts
of all the remarkable events that have occurred. These manu-
scripts are in great request. The conduct of persons of elevated
rank is sometimes as freely censured in them as it would be in any
country in Europe. The obstructions which the government throws
in the way of the publication of historical works prevent these
works from being known, and thus obviate whatever might make
an obnoxious impression on the minds of the people, and" endanger
the interests of the reigning dynasty, as well as the tranquillity of
the empire. From some of these manuscripts are extracted the
particulars here submitted to the public. The Japanese, to whom
they belong, keep them carefully concealed, so that it is difficult to
procure a sight of them. If^ I was fortunate enough to obtain the
communication of those from which I have extracted such curious
notes, I am indebted for it to the ardent zeal with which my friends
assisted me in all my researches." M. Abel Remusat, the learned
Orientalist, who, at the request of the French publisher, prefixed
some preliminary observations to this publication, observes that,
" Thanks to the pains M. Titsingh has taken, we shall outstrip the
Japanese themselves, and, by an extraordinary singularity, we shall
be earlier and better informed than they concerning the events of
their own history." This publication in Europe of Japanese his-
tory is not, however, so much a singularity as M. Remusat seems to
suppose. The letters of the Jesuit missionaries furnished contemporary
details of Japanese history extending over a period of more
than seventy years, and including
the establishment of the present
system of government, far more full and authentic, we may well
believe, than anything which the Japanese themselves possess, and
far exceeding anything contained in this book of Titsingh's, whom
M. Ilemusat, perhaps in rather too complimentary a spirit, places
* There is no such consonant as Dj in Japanese, and the proper reading is
not Djogoun, but Siogun. An English translation, including both th
Memoirs of the Djogouns and the other pieces, was published at London, iq
1822, with the title of ILLUSTRATIONS OF JAPAN.