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Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) wrote seventy eight works, as two hundred and six volumes and three tables in his lifetime. Outstanding among others is "Koziki-den" in forty four volumes, a pyramid of Norinaga's achievements. This is an annotative study on the Japanese classic Koziki. He finished all volumes of "Koziki-den" in 1798 (Kansei 10), when he was sixty nine years old. He spent more than thirty years on this great work.

The National Diet Library holds two binds of manuscript, volume one (general remarks) and volume two (annotation on the preface, genealogical record of Gods and Emperors). These two are considered as final version, because the text with the addition of many amendments is almost the same as the text of printed edition. Size -- 27.4 * 18.9cm. Vol. 1 has ninety four leaves, vol. 2 has sixty leaves. Text is written in a mixed writing of Chinese characters with the Japanese syllabary. A red stamp "Suzunoya zosho" on the opening page.

When did he finish volume 1 and volume 2 ? We don't know the exact year of completion, however we can estimate the year from the writing form, the way to give volume number and production date of a block copy for the printed edition. It is probable that volume 1 was completed in some year between 1785 (Tenmei 5) and 1788, and volume 2 was finished in 1785 or 1786. On the other hand, Norinaga's description on the Sinpuku Temple copy (oldest written copy of Koziki) deserves attention. He wrote this paragraph on a label stuck on the chapter "Shohon mata tyusyaku no koto" (comments on different copies of Koziki) in volume 1. We know that he checked the text of "Koziki" using the Sinpuku Temple copy in April 1787, consequently we can assume that Norinaga wrote the original text of volume 1 before this time.
Who wrote this copy ? Both two manuscripts are considered to be written in Norinaga's hand, however there are some portions, for example "Naobi no mitama" in the end of the vol. 1 are written in different handwriting. Further detailed research is waited to determine the writer and the date of completion.

Three versions of Norinaga`s manuscript exist in Motoori Norinaga Memorial Hall and in the Tenri Library. All changes on the process can be traced through them.

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