Until 1868, when Japan having been governed by the Tokugawa shogunate transformed itself from a feudal state to a modern nation-state with the Meiji Restoration, the Chou-tei, which had sill remained in Kyoto simply as the sacred traditional authority apart from the political power in Edo, had changed the name of the era every Shinn-yuu years in order to prevent foretold revolutionary disasters.
In The Truth of the Chronicles of Japan, Yuuko Kuranishi insists that the plural year number tables included in the chronicle, which look superficially a single year number, was assembled in order that both of surplus and minus years are just 120 years intentionally by the editor. The number 120 seems to be related to the sixty ageary cycle.
Some scholars infer that the method of the sixty agenary cycle, which has been regarded as a traditional Chinese calendar, should have been introduced from the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia. Particularly, Sumerians are said to have used and developed the sixty decimal.
Yuki-tura Miyoshi, who was a famous scholar and a jurisconsult called Myou-bou-ka in the age of Heian, said that “Shin-i Reki-un Setu” with six-agenary cycle was introduced into Japan with import of the text book explaining the divination theory, Eki-I, written during the dynasty of the Former Han. To our regret, it is nearly impossible to verify his assertion, because Eki-I has lost nowadays both in China and Japan.
“Shin-i Reki-un Setu” is a theory giving meaning to each of every sixty years. For instance, according to this theory, the regnal year of the first Sumera-mikoto, Jimmu-Tennow, falls on that of Shinn-Yuu when some revolutionary events would be supposed to occur.
The reason why the editors of the Chronicles of Japan arranged the composition of the year numbers is supposed that they should have hoped to enjoy the benefits of the theory called “Shin-i Reki-un Setu” in Japanese.
In 2003, The Truth of the Chronicles of Japan [日本書紀の真実]was published. The author, Yuuko Kuranishi, proposes a landmark hypothesis that the Chronicles of Japan would be composed with plural year number tables, maybe five or six in all, each of which has different starting years. This plural structure suggests that some of year number tables should be duplicated so that the lifetimes of early Tennows would have been prolonged unnaturally.
As the age at death of the Jimmu-Tennow was beyond the general span of life of human-beings, the Chronicle of Japan has been wholly regarded as an untrustworthy work written by the editor who managed to decorate the history of Japan. Recently, however, this problem of superhuman of early Tennows comes to a nearly perfect understanding.
On the eleventh of March in seventy sixth year of the Jimmu, the first Sumera-mikoto passed away at the Kashi-hara Palace. The age at death of Jimmu-Tennow is said to have been 127 years old.
The third volume of the Chronicles of Japan ends with the description the formal investiture of the Crown prince and the demise of the first Sumera-mikoto, Jinmu-tennow. On the third of January in forty second year of the Jimmu, the Sumera-mikoto invested Kamu-nuna-kawa-no-mikoto with the crown prince.
