Changes

The ''Dai Nihon Shi'' "was not created with any revolutionary intent,"<ref>Roberts, 167.</ref> but was coopted or appropriated by revolutionaries in the [[Bakumatsu period]], to support a pro-imperial (anti-[[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa]]) vision of Japanese history. In particular, such movements used the ''Dai Nihon Shi'' as the basis of an understanding of Japanese history centered around the emperor as the chief ever-present element, and the samurai as only temporary; this was later used to justify an expansionist, imperial(ist) Japan.

The ''Dai Nihon Shi'' "was not created with any revolutionary intent,"<ref>Roberts, 167.</ref> but was coopted or appropriated by revolutionaries in the [[Bakumatsu period]], to support a pro-imperial (anti-[[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa]]) vision of Japanese history. In particular, such movements used the ''Dai Nihon Shi'' as the basis of an understanding of Japanese history centered around the emperor as the chief ever-present element, and the samurai as only temporary; this was later used to justify an expansionist, imperial(ist) Japan.

The project was first begun at the orders of [[Tokugawa Mitsukuni]], lord of Mito, in [[1657]], with the compilation supervised or directed by [[Zhu Shunsui]]. A tentatively completed version was presented to the Tokugawa shogun in [[1720]], though editing continued for nearly another 200 years after that. A woodblock-printed edition was presented to the emperor in [[1851]].

The project was first begun at the orders of [[Tokugawa Mitsukuni]], lord of Mito, in [[1657]], with the compilation supervised or directed by [[Zhu Shunsui]]. A tentatively completed version was presented to the Tokugawa shogun in [[1720]], though editing continued for nearly another 200 years after that. A woodblock-printed edition was presented to the emperor in [[1851]], and then to numerous [[Shinto shrines]], ''[[daimyo]]'', and [[kuge|court nobles]] in [[1856]].<ref>Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 200.</ref>

The content of the ''Dai Nihon Shi'' is a narrative history organized around the successive emperors, with sub-chapters devoted to discussions of imperial relatives and notable imperial subjects (both loyal and traitorous). The text ends with the reign of [[Emperor Go-Kameyama]] (r. [[1383]]-1392), a product of the attitude that the Southern Court was the legitimate branch of the imperial line, and that its end is thus a rightful place to end such an imperial history.

The content of the ''Dai Nihon Shi'' is a narrative history organized around the successive emperors, with sub-chapters devoted to discussions of imperial relatives and notable imperial subjects (both loyal and traitorous). The text ends with the reign of [[Emperor Go-Kameyama]] (r. [[1383]]-1392), a product of the attitude that the Southern Court was the legitimate branch of the imperial line, and that its end is thus a rightful place to end such an imperial history.