Uetsufumi (Ancient Japanese Literature) (上記)
"Uetsufumi" is one of the writings called Koshi Koden (ancient history and legends) which contains ancient Japanese history including Ugayafukiaezu dynasty, which was before Yamato Dynasty, written in ancient Japanese characters, but it is said to be gisho (apocryphal book).
Summary
It was discovered in Bungo Province (present Oita Prefecture) in 1837. Also written "上紀", "上津文", "上つ文" or "ウエツフミ" and called "Otomo Bunken" or "Otomo Monjo".
The Uetsufumi is written in Toyo-no-kuni characters, a kind of ancient Japanese characters
According to the preface of "Uetsufumi," in 1223, Yoshinao OTOMO, Bungo no kuni no kami (Governor of Bungo Province), who was known to be an illegitimate child of MINAMOTO no Yoritomo, edited it based on the ancient documents "Shinharinoki" or "Takachiho-guji Kabun".
The contents include history starting from Ugayafukiaezu dynasty before Emperor Jinmu, astronomy, study of the calendar, medical science, industrial technology for agriculture, fishery and metallurgy, folktale, folklore, etc.
For example, according to "Uetsufumi", Emperor Jinmu was the 73th emperor of the Ugayafukiaezu dynasty, and it was Japan which transmitted agriculture or characters to China and Japan had an accurate original solar calendar.
Manuscript
There are two lines in the manuscript of existing Uetsufumi: Munakata-bon and Otomo-bon
Munakata-bon is what Haesaka SACHIMATSU, a scholar of Japanese classical literature, copied from ancient documents handed down in the Munakata family in Haji village, Ono region, Bungo Province (present Ono, Bungo Ono-city, Oita Prefecture).
Otomo-bon is the manuscript handed down in the old Otomo family, Usuki Fukura Village, Ama-gun in the Bungo Province.
Munakata-bon line
In the early 19th century, Ryozo Munakata, a shoya (village headman) in Haji village, Ono gun, who was purporting to be a family of Guji (chief of those who serves shrine, controls festivals and general affairs) asked Naganori TAMADA of Singakukan, Yoshida, Kyoto who visited the Oka clan, to evaluate the ancient documents written in special Kana handed down as "Kami no fumi (Letter of God)" and it was decided that the documents were a gisho (apocryphal book).
In 1831, after the death of Ryozo, the ancient document was passed on to Haesaka SACHIMATSU, a scholar of Japanese classical literature in Kyoto, and decipherment was done. Sachimatsu completed a manuscript in which characters were revised to ordinary Kana (Japanese syllabary) in 1848 and a manuscript in which the special kana in the original book remained unchanged in 1872 (Munakata-bon). The original book stored in the house of Ryozo's wife's parents was washed away in a flood of 1873 and was lost. Since the Munakata-bon is now stored in the Hashimoto family, it is also called Hashizume-bon.
In 1935, "Uetsufumi", issued from Jindai Bunka Kenkyukai (a study group of ancient time culture) was based on the "Ando-bon" which was a manuscript of "Munakata-bon" by Kazuma ANDO, the Nozu Village.
Otomo-bon line
In 1873, it turned out that the manuscript of "Uetsufumi" was secretly stored in the old family of Usuki, Otomo (Otomo-bon), and Kimatsu SHUNTO, a scholar of Japanese classical literature of the old Usuki clan completed writing a copy of Otomo-bon in 1875 (Shunto-bon). The Otomo-bon is now stored in the Oita Prefectural Library. Shunto-bon was donated to Usuki City in 2006 and specified as registered cultural property of Usuki City.
Study
Sachimatsu presented a copy of the manuscript to the Meiji government through Oita prefectural law in 1874. According to the indication of Kyobusho (Ministry of Religion), Manae NEMOTO and Yoshikaze KIRA worked with coalition to translate "Uesufumi" and in 1875, they published 41 volumes of "Uetsufumi" and "Direct translation of Uetsufumi", Yorikuni INOUE published "Uetsufumibengi" and Sekiden GOTO "Uetsukiko". Yoshikaze KIRA wrote "Uetsufumi Syoyaku" based on the "Uetsufumi chokuyaku (direct translation of Uetsufumi) in 1877. After that, Yoichiro TAJIKA wrote "Takachiho Komoji Den (Takachiho ancient characters history)" in 1876 and some researchers were suddenly fueled, but this was used by military men and statesmen as advertisement of nationalism, as you can see from the introduche, and also because the original book was written in ancient Japanese characters not recognized by the academic society, it was mostly ignored in general academic societies.
The prewar Ministry of Home Affair (Japan) copied the dedicated book of Sachimatsu and completed 41 volumes of "Uetsufumi". Three of them were copied separately and left as "Uetsufumi Duplicate book".
After "上記", "うへ津婦美(上つ文)", "Uetsufumi Chokuyaku" and "Uetsufumi Shoyaku" were stored in Naikaku bunko, they were transferred to National Archives of Japan due to the reorganization of central government ministries and agencies and are now open to public. "Uetsufumi Shoyaku" can be viewed at the Modern Digital Library in the National Diet Library.
Relationship between Kan MISUMI and Sanka transmission
The relationship of "Uetsufumi" with the transmission of Sanka (folklore) is often pointed out and "Uetsufumi" is said to be a plagiarism of Sanka legend.
The reasons are the Toyo-no-kuni characters used in Uetsufumi are very similar to the Sanka characters and there is a legend that Yoshinao OTOMO killed 1,600 Sanka people and stole their ancient books.
However, no one other than Kan Misaim introduced this as well as Sanka characters, so academic verification has not been done.
Also, Kan MISUMI was from Oita prefecture where "Uetsufumi" was discovered, and characters very similar to Sanka characters are used in "Uetsufumi" which only Kan MISUMI introduced. In addition, Misumi is said to have had deep knowledge about medicinal plants, and the medicinal plants Misumi introduced covered most of the medicinal plants that appeared in "Uetsufumi", in which "Uetsufumi" and Sanka is combined by Misumi.