Izumo FudokiTranslated by Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki

Excerpt

Since the 13th century, the Izumo fudoki has held a sacred place in Shintoism. In 1936 it was made part of the Shinto scripture because of its unique collection of early Japanese myths. Though the tales are fragmentary, since their main purpose was to explain the origin of place-names, they reveal a great deal about the imperial reaction to political realities and about local leaders’ reaction to political changes.

The Izumo fudoki is considered one of the important classical histories of the Japanese nation; since the 19th century no important Japanese literary anthology has failed to include it. Today the object of more critical study, historians have uncovered in it information indispensable to the study of ancient Japanese history, while literature scholars consider it valuable for its early forms of Japanese literature.

1971. vi + 173 pages.
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