About Japan's history books created in the 8th century

In the 8th century, the system of centralized government was established under the Ritsuryo-code, which  contained criminal laws and the regulations about governmental organization.

And then, the national government created several books about Japan's history to show the process of Japan's development.

One of the books, Kojiki, was created by the order of the Tenmu Emperor in 712. The Tenmu Emperor made Hieda-no-Are, an expert of memory,  remember stories from the oral tradition of the Yamato Imperial Court. And then Hieda told the stories to a scholar O-no-Yasumaro and Yasumaro wrote down them by Chinese characters. Kojiki contains stories from the origin of Japan to the early 7th century.

A second book, Nihonshoki was completed in 720. This book was compiled by a prince of the Tenmu Emperor, Toneri-Shinno. It contains historical stories from the origin of Japan to the late 7th century, but the book focused more on the consolidation of political power and the rights of succession to the throne. The book was organized in chronological order, written in classical Chinese style because it imitated to the style of Chinese history books