Nihongi

About the Author

Not much is known for certain about the compilers of the Nihongi, though there were certainly more than one. The record of the Nihongi’s presentation in 720 credits Prince Toneri (676–735), one of Tenmu’s sons, with the project. However, a previously recorded royal order of 714 had commanded Ki Kiyondo and Miyake Fujimaro to compile a national history, and this order is usually associated with the Nihongi. Quite possibly Toneri subsequently joined the project as a sponsor; since he had been made an adviser to the crown prince in 719 and would later be prime minister, he would have made a powerful patron. Kiyondo was well known as a scholar of the Confucian classics, and his influence, or that of men like him, helps explain some of the detailed references to yin and yang and their properties. While the text of the Nihongi seems to show the work of at least two groups of compilers, further speculation is difficult.