The Kojiki, the Record of Ancient Matters, was presented to the throne in 712. Recited by the court memorizer Hieda no Are and written down by Ō no Yasumaro, it tells of the age of the kami, of Izanagi and Izanami stirring the brine to form the islands, of Amaterasu the sun kami and her unruly brother Susanoo, and of the descent of her grandson to rule the land, down to the emperors of recorded time. It is the oldest surviving book of Japan and the charter myth of the imperial line.
Tagged: Jinja Shinto Shinto
The Event
- Date
- 712 (exact)
- Also called
- Records of Ancient Matters
- Era
- Ancient Kami Worship; Standard periodization of Shinto history
- Location
- Nara, the imperial capital; today Nara, Japan
- Traditions
- Shinto
- Streams
- Jinja Shinto
- Key figures
- Ō no Yasumaro, Empress Genmei
- Key texts
- Kojiki
Primary Sources
- The Kojiki (712).
Secondary Sources
- Hardacre, Helen. Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Breen, John, and Mark Teeuwen. A New History of Shinto. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Provenance: HIST-0904; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.
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