The most distinctive feature of the Hotsuma Tsutae lies in the script used to write it. It is written neither in Chinese characters nor kana, but in a unique writing system called the "Woshite script"¹.

According to the document's tradition, its origin dates back to the reign of Emperor Keikō (around the 1st–2nd century CE). The compiler is said to have been Ōtataneko and those in his circle, and it was later presented by an ancestor of the Miwa clan.

This text, long buried in the shadows of history, became known to the world in 1775, during the mid-Edo period, when Wanikoyasutoshi of Ōmi re-edited and annotated a manuscript copy. However, it has a history of being dismissed as a "forgery" by the mainstream of National Learning (kokugaku).

The key to understanding the Hotsuma Tsutae lies in the structure of the Woshite script. This is not merely a notational system—each character embodies the formation and philosophy of the cosmos.

The vowels of Woshite (A, I, U, E, O) correspond to five cosmic elements:

By combining these vowels with consonants, the 48 sounds of "Yosoya-koe" are created. In the worldview of the Hotsuma Tsutae, the very act of speaking was considered a technique of "Kotodama" (word-spirit)—manipulating these elements to influence the physical world.

The symbol of this concept is the "Awa Uta" (Song of A and Wa). By chanting this 48-sound song from "A" to "Wa," one could restore order to a disordered mind, body, or society—this was said to be central to ancient education.

While the Kiki emphasize "miracles by the gods" and "the nobility of bloodlines," the Hotsuma Tsutae expounds an extremely pragmatic and ethical philosophy of governance. This is "To-no-Woshite."

"To" means integration and fusion, "No" means transformation or function, and "Woshite" means teaching or law. The ideal was to harmonize opposing dualities—heaven and earth, male and female, yin and yang—and maintain the middle way.

In this philosophy, the role of rulers (Kami) was to enrich the lives of the people and guide them in agriculture and technology. Here, "Kami" does not refer to supernatural beings, but to the leader class who "stand above" (kami), or revered ancestors.

The greatest shock that the Hotsuma Tsutae delivers to readers is that the imperial ancestral deity Amateru is clearly depicted as male.

In the Kiki, Amaterasu Ōmikami is portrayed as a goddess who engages in weaving and hides in a rock cave, frightened by her brother Susanoo's violence—a passive feminine deity. However, Amateru-kami in the Hotsuma Tsutae is an ancient emperor who excelled in both letters and arms.

This reversal of gender is not mere fluidity in tradition. It suggests a significant political rewriting at the very foundation of Japanese ancient history.

According to the Hotsuma Tsutae, Amateru had twelve consorts (secondary wives) and one empress (inner palace), forming the "Thirteen Bureaus" (Tomi no Tsubone). This held calendrical symbolism representing the twelve months with the sun at the center, while also representing a typical ancient royal harem structure. It would be inconceivable in ancient Japanese society for a goddess to have multiple women as wives—this stands as evidence that Amateru was male.

The Hotsuma Tsutae can also be read as the coming-of-age story of Amateru himself. Born as the first child of Isanagi and Isanami, Amateru was separated from his parents immediately after birth to avoid a calendrical superstition—"a boy born when the sun is young will bring calamity to his parents."

He was entrusted to his grandfather Toyoke-kami (Toyouke Ōkami), who ruled the eastern land of "Hitakami (Land of the High Sun)."

In the Kiki, Toyouke Ōkami enshrined at Ise Shrine's Outer Shrine is merely a "deity of food." However, in the Hotsuma Tsutae, he is portrayed as a great educator who taught Amateru the truths of the cosmos, the laws of governance, the calculation of calendars, and the mysteries of the Woshite script.

The famous "Heavenly Rock Cave" legend also takes on an entirely different aspect in the Hotsuma Tsutae. While the Kiki portray it as the result of hiding in fear of Susanoo's violence, the Hotsuma Tsutae describes it as a highly calculated "political strike".

Feeling responsible for his brother Sosanowo's (Susanoo's) political failures and misconduct, and wishing to admonish the arrogance of his ministers, Amateru voluntarily abdicated and went into seclusion. From within the cave, Amateru watched as his ministers realized "what would become of the world without me," while wise councilor Omoikane and others pooled their wisdom to restore the nation.

Here emerges the figure of Amateru not as an emotional deity, but as a seasoned politician.

The greatest question that the Hotsuma Tsutae poses to the modern age is the existence of the goddess Seoritsu-hime.

In the main texts of the Kiki mythology, her name has been completely erased. She appears only once—abruptly—in the norito "Ōharae no Kotoba" (Great Purification Prayer) collected in the Engishiki compiled during the Heian period, as one of the Haraedo no Ōkami (Great Deities of Purification) "who dwells in the rapids of the river and washes sins and impurities to the sea"².

However, in the Hotsuma Tsutae, she is Amateru-kami's empress, "Mukatsu-hime" (Goddess Who Faces)—the story's most important heroine.

She was not merely "the king's wife." In the worldview of the Hotsuma Tsutae, the ideal was for a male deity (yang) and female deity (yin) to govern as a pair. If Amateru presided over "the sun = visible governance," Seoritsu-hime presided over "the mirror = hidden governance and support from within."

Today, Amaterasu Ōmikami is enshrined in the Inner Shrine of Ise. But in the Aramatsuri-no-miya (Shrine of the Rough Spirit), "Amaterasu Ōmikami Aramitama" (the rough spirit of Amaterasu) is enshrined. According to shrine traditions and some research, this aramitama is actually Seoritsu-hime.

From the perspective of the Hotsuma Tsutae, Ise Shrine was originally a shrine jointly enshrining the divine couple—Amateru (male) and Seoritsu-hime (female).

When Amateru was feminized during the Kiki compilation, there was no longer a place for his wife Seoritsu-hime. She was either relegated to an abstract "other aspect" called the "rough spirit," or hidden away as an "unidentified deity" in a subsidiary shrine within the precincts.

The traces of Seoritsu-hime remain in Hyōgo Prefecture to this day.

Hirota Shrine (in Nishinomiya City, Hyōgo) is an ancient shrine mentioned even in the Nihon Shoki. Its principal deity is "Amaterasu Ōmikami Aramitama"—whose formal name is "Tsukisakaki-itsu-no-mitama-amasakaru-mukatsu-hime-no-mikoto". This extraordinarily long divine name exactly matches Seoritsu-hime's alternative name in the Hotsuma Tsutae: "Amasakaru Mukatsu-hime"³.

Rising behind Hirota Shrine is Mount Rokkō, once called "Muko-yama" (Mount Muko). "Muko" is thought to derive from "Mukatsu-hime." The massive iwakura (sacred rock formation) at Rokkōhime Shrine deep in the mountains is believed to be Seoritsu-hime's burial place⁴.

Why was the coherent narrative of the Hotsuma Tsutae overwritten by the Kiki? The motives likely lie in the political situation of the late 7th century—particularly the designs of Fujiwara no Fuhito and Empress Jitō.

Legitimizing a Female Emperor's Reign: After Emperor Tenmu, who had risen to power through the Jinshin War, died, his empress ascended the throne as Empress Jitō. Planning to pass the throne to her grandson Emperor Monmu, she needed mythological backing for her own "rule as a woman." The narrative that "the supreme deity of heaven is also female" would be the most powerful propaganda for a female emperor. This may be why the male deity Amateru was transformed into the female deity Amaterasu.

Establishing Fujiwara Clan Power: Fujiwara no Fuhito, the effective director of the Kiki compilation, positioned his clan's (Fujiwara/Nakatomi) ancestral deity Ame-no-Koyane as Amaterasu's closest confidant at the heart of the mythology. In doing so, he needed to delete or alter accounts in existing traditions that favored other powerful clans or genealogies of deities ranking above the Fujiwara. Seoritsu-hime's family is thought to have been among those affected.

The message that the Hotsuma Tsutae offers the modern age goes beyond merely "another version of history."

While the Kiki oriented toward a unitary, centralized legitimacy, the Hotsuma Tsutae oriented toward a dualistic harmony where "male and female," "heaven and earth," "surface and depth" cooperate as equals. The restoration of Seoritsu-hime revives the ancient ideal of "governance through partnership" that Japanese society had long forgotten.

Facing modern challenges of environmental issues and gender balance, the figure of Seoritsu-hime—a goddess who presided over nature (water) and stood as an equal with a male deity—can serve as an ethical and spiritual model for a new era.

These secret teachings came to light through the decision ofTakeuchi Mutsuhiro, who inherited the title of 73rd Takenouchi-no-Sukune. Originally, this knowledge was strictly forbidden from disclosure. However, Takeuchi concluded that modern society faced a crisis due to excessive materialism, and that humanity's spiritual evolution required access to ancient wisdom. Against the objections of the elders, he chose to reveal portions of the tradition.²

The cosmology of the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents bears striking resemblance to modern physics, particularly string theory. Takeuchi Mutsuhiro taught that the surname "Takeuchi" (containing the character for bamboo) itself symbolizes the structure of the universe.Bamboo is cylindrical, hollow, and segmented with joints—this form suggests that the universe consists not merely of three-dimensional space as we perceive it, but of a cylindrical structure composed of higher-dimensional membranes.³

Furthermore, the "prayers (Norito)" and "rituals" of ancient Shinto are redefined not as mere religious ceremonies, but asquantum mechanical technologies. According to physicist Yasue Kunio and other researchers connected to the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents, human consciousness and words (Kotodama) function as quantum information. Prayer and healing directed at distant subjects succeed through the phenomenon of "quantum entanglement" in consciousness.

"Tamashizume" (soul pacification) is the collapse of the wave function through observation—a technique for stabilizing unstable quantum states (souls) and fixing them in reality. "Kotodama" (word-spirit) is reality modification through specific frequencies (sounds). In this way, the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents reconceptualize Shinto as "an ancient quantum technology system," presenting a monistic worldview that dissolves the boundary between spirit and matter.

At the core of the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents' historical view lies the"Japan-origin civilization theory."Tens of thousands of years ago, the Japanese archipelago (which allegedly included parts of the Mu continent) served as the world's center, from which civilization spread globally. The ruler of that era, "Sumeramikoto" (Emperor), was not merely a monarch of one nation called Japan, buta World Emperor governing the entire Earth.

Sumeramikoto traveled aboard the "Ama-no-ukifune" (Heavenly Floating Vessel) to make royal progresses through the world's sixteen directions (provinces). The Imperial chrysanthemum crest with its sixteen petals is said to symbolize sovereignty over these sixteen directions.⁴

Crucially, this classification of five-colored peoples wasnot a discriminatory hierarchy but a functional "division of roles."The Orthodox Takeuchi Documents describe the era when these five peoples lived in harmony under Sumeramikoto as an "ideal world (the Age of Miroku)," and explain modern racial conflict as the result of that harmony's collapse. The commonalities found in myths and archaeological sites worldwide are remnants of memories from when all belonged to a single civilization.

The great continent "Mu" (Miyoi-Tamiara), said to have existed in the Pacific Ocean, possessed advanced spiritual civilization and scientific technology, but sank beneath the sea due to cataclysmic events. At that time, leaders acting on Sumeramikoto's orders evacuated to various parts of the world (Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus, the Andes, etc.) and rebuilt civilization in each location.

According to this tradition, the world's four great civilizations did not arise independently but are"branch houses" of Japan's prehistoric civilization. Egypt's solar worship and pyramid construction are said to be imitations of the "Hiramit" (Pyramid) originally in Japan, the result of technology transfer. This structure of "parent nation (Japan)" and "child nations (the world)" forms the ideological foundation of the "return to Japan" concept unique to the Takeuchi Documents.⁵

The "Ama-no-ukifune" (Heavenly Floating Vessel) was a flying device comparable to modern UFOs. However, it did not rely solely on physical propulsion like internal combustion engines or jet propulsion, but is speculated to have been a"psychically responsive anti-gravity device"utilizing the pilot's mental energy (nen) and magnetic field control of specific minerals (such as Hihiirokane).

Additionally, ancient Japan is said to have possessed a legendary alloy called "Hihiirokane" (Sun-scarlet metal). This metal allegedly never rusts and maintains its brilliance eternally; possesses properties approaching room-temperature superconductivity, transmitting heat and electricity without energy loss; and serves as a medium for amplifying and storing human consciousness and energy. The originals of the Three Imperial Regalia (Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword, Yata-no-Kagami mirror, Yasakani-no-Magatama jewel) are said to have been crafted from this Hihiirokane.⁶

Regarding Jesus Christ's youth (approximately ages 12 to 30), a period absent from the New Testament record, the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents assert this was"a period of training in Japan."Jesus traveled to Japan (to Sumeramikoto) and learned the teachings of love from ancient Shinto, Kotodama, and healing techniques. After returning home, he spread these teachings in the land of Judea but faced persecution.

An even more startling oral tradition holds that the one crucified at Golgotha was Jesus's younger brother "Isukiri," while Jesus himself secretly fled to Japan, living out his natural life in present-day Shingo Village, Aomori Prefecture (formerly Herai Village) under the name "Torai Tarou Daitenku." The phonetic similarity between "Herai" and "Hebrew," as well as the local folk song "Naniyado-yara" being interpretable in Hebrew, are cited as supporting evidence.⁷

What this "sages' visit to Japan theory" suggests is that beneath the world's major religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, etc.) lies acommon truth (ancient Shinto), and that ultimately these should be unified in Japan, their source—the philosophy of "Bankyo Kiitsu" (the return of all religions to one).

"Yatagarasu" (the eight-span crow) is the guiding bird appearing in the mythology of Emperor Jimmu's eastern expedition, but in the context of the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents, it refers to asecret society protecting the Emperor spiritually and physically (a priestly and intelligence organization). Its members are masters of Onmyodo and sorcery called "Kanbara" (Kabbalah), who operate without household registration, never appearing on history's public stage.

Their structure is said to have "Three Great Crows" at the apex, with hierarchies including the "Twelve Crows." The role of Yatagarasu is to support the national polity from behind the scenes when the visible political structure collapses or in times of national crisis, enthroning and protecting the next Emperor.⁸

In the philosophy of the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents (ancient Shinto), there is no dualistic opposition between "absolute good vs. absolute evil" as in Christianity. All phenomena are manifestations of the divine (the universe), and what appears evil is merely a "role" or "temporary stagnation."

A key concept is"Shuri-Kosei" (repair and solidification). These words, commanded to Izanagi and Izanami in the creation myth of the Kojiki, mean "to repair what is broken, solidify it, and bring it to completion (a better state)." Modern society's chaos (environmental destruction, war, plague) is not "evil" to be condemned, but "disorder" to be "repaired" for civilization to evolve to its next stage.

The Orthodox Takeuchi Documents view history as a cyclical process. The present is said to be a transitional period (Ō-tōge, the great pass) where material civilization has peaked and heads toward collapse and rebirth. According to prophecy, beyond this great pass lies the"Age of Miroku"—a golden age of spiritual civilization. There, the harmony of the five-colored peoples will be restored, and an advanced civilization merging material and spiritual science will be built.

From an academic perspective, the Orthodox Takeuchi Documents are often classified as "pseudohistory" or "koshi-koden" (ancient chronicles), and verifying them as historical fact is difficult. However, their content is too sophisticated and systematic to dismiss as mere fabrication or fantasy. Some researchers acknowledge their intellectual value as spiritual philosophy containing quantum mechanical insights, and as civilizational proposals intended to restore lost ancient rites. Rather than approaching these documents through the binary of "historical fact or not," readers are encouraged to consider them from the perspective of "why has such a grand narrative been transmitted across generations."

To understand the origins of the Kukami Documents, we must look back to the great religious upheaval on the Japanese archipelago in the 6th century. The official introduction of Buddhism in 538 CE (or 552 CE) was an event that shook the very foundations of the state system and spiritual structure of the time. The conflict between thepro-Buddhist Soga clan, which sought to accept Buddhism from the continent and build a centralized state, and theanti-Buddhist Mononobe and Nakatomi clans, which sought to preserve worship of the ancient deities, eventually escalated into armed conflict.²

According to the Kukami tradition, the victorious Soga clan not only eliminated their political enemies but alsoburned the "ultra-ancient sacred texts, documents, and national histories"that they possessed. This is described as cultural destruction comparable to the "burning of books and burying of scholars" by China's First Emperor of Qin. The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki that survive today are understood, according to koshi koden, as "incomplete history" that survived this book burning and was edited by the victorious Soga clan and later powers (such as the Fujiwara clan).

However, not all records turned to ash. The sages on the losing side foresaw their impending doom, secretly made copies of important documents, entrusted them to reliable clans, and had them flee to various regions.

The name "Kukami" suggests that a collateral branch of the Nakatomi clan existed as a "shadow," separate from the Fujiwara clan (descendants of Nakatomi no Kamatari) who seized visible political power, to protect the authentic ancient divine laws. They are said to have escaped the Soga pursuit, hidden themselves in mountainous regions and borderlands, and continued to conceal the documents while merging with mountain beliefs such as Shugendō.

The historical view of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki has a structure that connects directly from the "Age of the Gods" (era of heavenly and earthly deities) to the "Age of Humans" (from Emperor Jimmu onward). However, the Kukami Documents and many other koshi koden posita lengthy intermediate erabetween these periods. This is the "Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty."³

According to the Kukami Documents, the Ugayafukiaezu Dynastycontinued for seventy-three generations, and the seventy-third ruler became Emperor Jimmu (Kamu-yamato-iware-biko), the first emperor in the classical chronicles. Similar descriptions appear in other koshi koden such as Uetsufumi, indicating that these share a common tradition.

Of interest are the linguistic features found in the names of successive emperors of the Ugaya Dynasty. Names such as "Kawahario-ō no Mikoto," "Tamanagahiko-ō no Mikoto," and "Nenakaho-ō no Mikoto" combine "ō" (king) and "mikoto" (sacred spirit), showing a fusion of continental "kingship" concepts with the indigenous Japanese concept of "mikoto" (spiritual power). The phonetics of "ne," "tsu," and "ho" also suggest the influence of kotodama (word spirit) thought.⁴

What is most striking about the worldview of the Kukami Documents is its cosmological descriptions. The ancestral deities of the Imperial family may be depicted not as coming from Takamagahara (the abstract celestial realm), but asbeings who came from physical outer space, or from specific star systems.⁵

Furthermore, the description that descendants of the gods "ruled the Earth" leads to the claim that the Japanese Emperor (Sumeramikoto) was not merely a king of an island nation, but was oncea World Emperor who ruled the entire planet. This corresponds with the story of world tours via "heavenly floating ships" (Ame-no-ukifune) in the Takeuchi Documents, supporting the view that both documents are "sister texts."

The Kukami Documents also contain descriptions claiming that sages and saints of the world—Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, and Confucius—visited Japan and served or received teachings from the Emperor. This forms a historical view of "all religions returning to one" (Bankyō kiitsu), that is,all religions have their roots in Japan (Shinto), and world civilization spread from Japan.⁶

Among researchers, the Kukami Documents and the Takeuchi Documents are considered to have a "sister relationship." Their similarities go beyond coincidence, and it is thought that theyeither derived from the same original source or had a strong mutual influence.

Common features of both documents include: the dynastic structure of 73 generations of the Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty; the origin story of rescue from the Soga book burning; a cosmology of gods descending from space; and the fact that the transmitting clans both claim descent from families at the core of the ancient Yamato court.⁷

What this sister relationship suggests is that in ancient times, an "anti-Soga, anti-Buddhist" network existed, and the"counter-history"they shared may have diverged into the traditions of their respective clans. We can view multiple koshi koden as coexisting as underground streams preserving "another Japanese history" not recorded in the official chronicles.

What decisively distinguishes the Kukami Documents from other koshi koden is that they are not merely "reading material" but"practical knowledge" encoded in martial arts—bodily techniques. As proof of legitimate succession in Kukami Shinden-ryū, the texts "Secret Teachings of Kukami Shinden-ryū Staff Techniques" and "Scroll of Amatsu Tatara Techniques" (Amatsu Tatara Ki-mon no Maki) are cited.⁸

In ancient times, the technology to produce iron implements was a source of military power and simultaneously a sacred magical art transforming fire and metal. Amatsu Tatara is considered not merely a martial arts manual buta comprehensive survival technology system of ancient Japan, including medicine, astronomy, military strategy, castle construction, and spiritual cultivation. The historical narratives of the Kukami Documents may have functioned as the "mythical background" legitimizing this technical system.

Information inscribed in the body as kata (forms), unlike books, is transmitted directly from master to disciple, making it difficult to destroy or falsify from outside. Kukami Shinden-ryū staff techniques and body arts have served asa time capsule preserving the thoughts and philosophy recorded in the Kukami Documents as bodily movements.

From the standpoint of academic history, the Kukami Documents are generally considered "forgeries" created between the late Edo period and the Meiji era. The 73 generations of the Ugaya Dynasty and the inclusion of modern concepts are cited as evidence.

However, from the perspectives of cultural anthropology and religious studies, the question of "whether it is a forgery or not" is insufficient. What matters iswhy such documents were written, believed, and protected together with the bodily culture of martial arts.⁹

The Kukami Documents can be seen asan "underground history"constructed by people excluded from the "official history" of classical mythology to recover their own identity and pride—a spiritual sanctuary for the defeated. Unlike the classical mythology reflecting the order of the rice-cultivating plains, they may richly reflect the memories and beliefs of people marginalized from official history: mountain religious groups, iron-smelting peoples, or maritime peoples.

Although the Kukami Documents are questionable as records of historical fact, they are first-class cultural materials for understanding Japanese spiritual history— particularly marginalized faiths and technologies, and the collective memory of the defeated. As a device for envisioning "another Japanese history that might have been," they continue to exert a powerful magnetic force even today.¹⁰

For centuries, Japanese ancient history has been narrated based on the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720)—collectively known as the Kiki. In these official chronicles, Izumo is portrayed as a "sacred religious land" that peacefully ceded sovereignty to the Amatsukami (heavenly deities), suggesting that political power was centered in Yamato from the very beginning.

However, behind the history written by the victors, another story may have been hidden. The key to unlocking this narrative lies with the Tomi Family (富家)—a lineage claiming direct descent from the Izumo royal house, which has preserved its own traditions through oral transmission for generations.¹

The Tomi Family is said to belong to the same lineage as Nomi no Sukune—the fourteenth-generation descendant of Amenohohi, the legendary ancestor of the Izumo Kokuzō (provincial governors).²They were not mere regional lords but served as the "Vice-Royal House" alongside the Main Royal House (Gōdo Family), sharing a dual kingship in the Izumo Kingdom.

The oral traditions they preserve represent "the memory of the defeated"—accounts that existed before the Kiki were compiled or were deliberately excluded during their compilation. These dangerous truths, which could have been targets of book-burning or persecution if written down, were protected through a form of single-heir transmission, giving these traditions their extraordinary value.

The most distinctive feature of the Izumo oral traditions is that the Izumo Kingdom operated under a dual leadership system with a "Master King" and a "Vice King".³

This system was designed to prevent the concentration of power in one person, balancing religious authority (the one who hears the voice of the gods = Kotoshironushi) with political executive power (Ōkuninushi). In the Kiki, Kotoshironushi is depicted as Ōkuninushi's "son," but according to the oral tradition's structure, they should be understood as "political partners" rather than parent and child.

"Ōkuninushi" is generally known as a single heroic deity who rescued the White Rabbit of Inaba, built the nation alongside Sukunabikona, and ultimately decided to cede the land. However, the oral traditions demand a fundamental revision of this understanding.

Related sources contain references such as "17th generation deity, 6th ruler," "predecessor," and "successor," suggesting that Ōkuninushi was not a specific individual's name but a "royal title (position)" passed down through generations. If this is true, the contradiction of too many diverse achievements attributed to one lifetime in the Kiki—nation-building, spreading medicine, extensive marriage alliances, and the cession of land—can be resolved. It was the result of mythological technique that condensed centuries of Izumo dynastic history into a single personified deity.

The consorts listed as Ōkuninushi's wives—Suseribime, Takiribime, Yagamihime, Nunakawahime, and others—were not merely mythological romances but are thought to represent political alliances that maintained a tribal confederation centered on Izumo, spanning the Sea of Japan coast, San'in, and Hokuriku regions.

In Kiki mythology, the "Kuniyuzuri" (cession of the land) ends relatively peacefully: the messenger Takemikazuchi from Takamagahara demands that Ōkuninushi yield the land, and Ōkuninushi retires on the condition that a palace (Izumo Taisha) be built for him.

However, the Tomi Family's oral tradition depicts this event as an entirely different "war of invasion". The chief perpetrator named in this invasion is Jofuku (徐福)—the Fangshi (court magician) who, according to legend, set sail eastward under orders from Qin Shi Huang to find the elixir of immortality. According to the oral tradition, he led a powerful military force to the Japanese archipelago and conquered Izumo by force.

In other words, both the Master King (the last Ōkuninushi) and the Vice King (Kotoshironushi) were killed by invaders. The simultaneous elimination of the leadership paralyzed the Izumo Kingdom's governing functions. Rather than a legendary magician, Jofuku may have been the leader of an armed migrant group from the continent equipped with iron weapons and organized military tactics—or possibly a real historical conqueror.

In the Kiki, Kotoshironushi responds to Takemikazuchi's inquiry by saying "I offer this land to you," then claps his hands and hides within the "Aofushigaki" (green brushwood fence). However, when compared with the oral tradition's account of his "assassination," the possibility emerges that this "Aofushigaki" was not a place of retreat but rather a metaphor for a prison or execution ground.

Alternatively, it could be interpreted as a mythological embellishment of the fact that his murdered body was placed in an area enclosed by green brushwood. The act of "clapping hands" (kashiwade) may not have been a sign of consent but a final farewell or perhaps a cursing ritual. From the Tomi Family's perspective, Kotoshironushi's death was not "retirement by agreement" but a death of resentment—in other words, a massacre.

The people of Izumo who lost their king and vice king are said to have entered "a prolonged period of mourning." This was not merely a mourning ritual but is thought to refer to a "period of subjugation" during which they were forced into silence under the invaders' rule.

What is crucial to understanding the movements of the survivors is that the society of that era was "matrilineal". In a patrilineal society, when the father (king) dies, his children would remain in their paternal territory and either fight or be killed. However, in a matrilineal society, children belonged to their mother's clan. After the king's death, the consorts took their children and returned to their respective "maternal homes." This became the trigger for the bloodline of Izumo to spread across various parts of Japan.

Ikutamayorihime, the wife of Kotoshironushi (the Vice King from the Tomi Family), returned to her homeland "Settsu Mishima (present-day northern Osaka Prefecture)" with her children after the mourning period ended. Even more significant is the movement of her son, Kushihikata (奇日方).

This account contains significant implications that overturn conventional theories of Japanese ancient history. While the Yamato kingship is generally believed to have been established through an eastern expedition from Kyushu (Emperor Jimmu), the oral tradition suggests that an Izumo royal (Kotoshironushi's son) settled in the Katsuragi region of the Yamato Basin and formed the core of the early Yamato government. The Izumo Kingdom did not perish; rather, the bloodline of its Vice-Royal House relocated to Yamato and became the foundation of a new royal authority. This means that the early stages of the Yamato court had strong Izumo (Tomi Family) blood flowing through them.

This explains why Kotoshironushi was later revered as one of the Eight Gods of the Imperial Court—because he was the de facto ancestor of the early Yamato kingship.

Another escape route involves Nunakawahime (沼河比売), one of Ōkuninushi's wives, and her son Takeminakata. In the Kiki, Takeminakata is defeated in a contest of strength with Takemikazuchi, flees from Izumo to Lake Suwa in Shinano, and surrenders by declaring "I will never leave this place."

However, a different interpretation emerges based on the logic of matrilineal society. Nunakawahime's homeland was "Koshi" (越)—the area around present-day Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture, the center of jade culture. After her husband Ōkuninushi's death, it was natural for her to take her son and return to her homeland. The reason for moving further inland to Suwa is thought to be strategic retreat or pioneering of new territory. Suwa was a land with ancient rituals dating back to the Jōmon period, well-suited for defense against external enemies.

The "flight" depicted in the Kiki may be propaganda by the victors. In reality, it was likely an organized relocation supported by the maternal clan (the forces of Koshi), and should be understood as establishing a new independent power base (the prototype of the Suwa Shintō faction) in Suwa.

What happened to the Tomi Family and the people of Izumo after the kingdom's collapse? One answer appears in the figure of Nomi no Sukune (野見宿禰), who emerges during the reign of Emperor Suinin. He was an "Izumo person," said to be the fourteenth-generation descendant of Amenohohi, the ancestor of the Izumo Kokuzō, suggesting a very close blood relationship with the Tomi Family.

Nomi no Sukune's famous achievements—"sumo wrestling (his match against Taima no Kehaya)" and "the creation of haniwa (proposing clay figures instead of human sacrifice)"—can be read as cultural and technological contributions that the Izumo forces made to the Yamato court.

After armed resistance became impossible, the Tomi Family (Nomi no Sukune's clan) embedded themselves deeply within the court through ritual, culture, and technology, securing their family's survival by becoming indispensable. While this could be called "outward compliance with inward resistance," it was simultaneously a strategic victory achieved over long years to inscribe Izumo culture into the heart of Japan.

The Izumo oral traditions of the Tomi Family are not merely heterodox theories. They are "historical testimony" with logical consistency that fills the contradictions and gaps in Kiki mythology. By depicting Ōkuninushi and Kotoshironushi not as gods but as humans who bore political roles, the realistic picture of power struggles in ancient Japan emerges. By acknowledging the intervention of continental forces like Jofuku, explanations consistent with archaeological changes (the burial of bronze artifacts, changes in weapons) become possible.

The fact that the Tomi Family limited their traditions to "oral transmission" and avoided writing them down speaks to how history can be rewritten by victors and how difficult it is for the defeated to preserve the truth. The study of these oral traditions in modern times provides an opportunity to update Japanese ancient history from "a single narrative centered on the emperor" to "a narrative of the rise, fall, and integration of various lands and clans".

Izumo perished. Yet its blood flowed into Yamato through Katsuragi, into the eastern provinces through Suwa, and into the depths of culture through Nomi no Sukune. By incorporating the Tomi Family's perspective, we can re-recognize that Izumo was never "a land that yielded and disappeared" but rather "a land that continued to live on in transformed shape".

The year 1883, when the Miyashita Documents emerged, was a period when the Meiji government was consolidating its national framework. State Shinto, centered on the Emperor, was being established, and historical education treating the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as orthodox history was thoroughly implemented. Meanwhile, the Freedom and People's Rights Movement was intensifying, and rural areas were suffering from the deflation caused by Finance Minister Matsukata's policies.²

The Miyashita family, where the documents were discovered, was no ordinary local household. This family had served as hereditary priests of Omuro Sengen Shrine for generations. More significantly, the Miyashita family claimed to bedescendants of the chief priests of "Asoyama Daijingū". In the worldview of the Miyashita Documents, Asoyama Daijingū was the central institution of the Fuji Dynasty—the supreme shrine where the gods were enshrined.

The narrative that a vast collection of ancient records was rediscovered from this distinguished lineage presented a counterpoint to "the hierarchy of shrines with Ise Jingū at its apex," asserting that "the true center was at Mount Fuji all along."

The name "Miyashita Documents" is a convenient collective term; in reality, it is not a single book but an aggregation of diverse records. The content can be broadly divided into four categories.

The first is "Mythology and Genesis", recording everything from the creation of heaven and earth to the genealogy of the gods, showing both similarities and differences with the mythology of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. The second is "Historical Records", containing detailed accounts of successive emperors, imperial family members, and regional clans. The third is "Topography and Geography", describing the terrain, settlements, and natural environment around Mount Fuji, which can be correlated with modern place names. The fourth is "Prophecies and Doctrines", including religious precepts, predictions about the future, and specific guidelines for agriculture and land reclamation.³

Intriguingly, the literary style of the Miyashita Documents shows strong awareness of the mythology in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. For example, the phrase "the land was young and floating like oil, drifting like a jellyfish" closely matches the opening of the Kojiki. Even the usage of Man'yōgana (ancient phonetic writing) is similar, suggesting that the compilers of the Miyashita Documents were thoroughly familiar with the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki and attempted to construct their own narrative by incorporating elements from them.

The most radical claim of the Miyashita Documents is thatTakamagahara, the stage of Japanese mythology, was not a celestial realm but an actual highland area at the foot of Mount Fuji. While Takamagahara in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is depicted as an abstract "heaven," the Miyashita Documents describe it as a "utopia of immortality" with concrete geography.⁴

Specifically, the following activity bases of the gods are mapped to present-day geography:Mount Anmo (Anmoyama), located in Fujinomiya City, was the residence of Kotoshironushi-no-Mikoto and the retirement place of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.Kamosawa (Kabasawa) was the birthplace of Kamosawahime-no-Mikoto, mother of Konohanasakuya-hime.Yamamiya Sengen Shrine is said to enshrine the sacred stones of Ninigi-no-Mikoto and Konohanasakuya-hime.Ōyamatsumi Reisha is the mausoleum of Ōyamatsumi-no-Mikoto.

These descriptions, in which mythological figures have "residences" and "retirement places" where they lived their lives, are based on an"anthropomorphic" view of history that portrays gods as human-like ancestors. This represents an attempt to rationalize mythology as "history" and may have been influenced by Kokugaku (National Learning) and Confucian rationalism from the early modern period.

The Miyashita Documents' greatest point of contention with orthodox history concerns the"Eight Legendary Emperors" (Kesshi Hachidai). In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the eight emperors between the first Emperor Jimmu and the tenth Emperor Sujin (Suizei, Annei, Itoku, Kōshō, Kōan, Kōrei, Kōgen, and Kaika) have only their genealogies recorded, with virtually no specific achievements mentioned. For this reason, modern historians have long debated whether these emperors actually existed.⁵

However, the Miyashita Documents fill this "historical gap" with detailed accounts. For example, there are records of emperors personally touring the provinces for 13 years to instruct farmers in land reclamation ("Imperial Tours and Agricultural Promotion"). There are descriptions of establishing a system where the people revered shrines and prayed for national peace and bountiful harvests ("Establishment of Ritual Systems"). And there are accounts of establishing the shrine ranking system with categories such as Taisha, Shōsha, Gōsha, and Sonsha ("Establishment of Shrine Ranks").

The Miyashita Documents, merely discovered, remained "hidden texts." They came to have social influence through the act of "publishing" at specific times.

The Miyashita Documents were first systematically published in 1921-1922 (Taishō 10-11). This was the Shinkōki (Chronicle of Divine Sovereigns), compiled byMiwa Yoshihiro. It was a massive work of 561 pages, published as a boxed set with an impressive binding.⁶

After World War II, the Miyashita Documents were temporarily forgotten, but they were rediscovered amid the occult boom from the 1970s onward and the more recent spiritual boom. The driving force behind this revival was the writerSaji Yoshihiko. His book "The Enigma of the Miyashita Documents: The Glory and Tragedy of the Fuji Takamagahara Dynasty" (published by Tokuma Shoten) strongly appealed to those distrustful of official historical narratives with its provocative catchphrase: "Japanese ancient history fabricated by the establishment's Bible (Kojiki and Nihon Shoki)."

Notably, reprints continue to be published even in 2025. A reprint edition is being released by Hikaruland at a price of 3,300 yen, and copies are traded on the secondhand market (such as Mercari) at premium prices of up to 8,000 yen. This proves that the Miyashita Documents, though niche, maintain an extremely passionate readership and continue to be "sellable content" across generations.⁷

In the 21st century, the Miyashita Documents have transformed from something to "read" into something to "experience". In Ōmyōken, Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi Prefecture, a religious corporation called"Fuji Asoyama Daijingū"has been established with the aim of reconstructing the Asoyama Daijingū central to the Miyashita Documents. The shrine conducts traditional ceremonies such as New Year's festivals and prayers during the first three days of the year.⁸

Interestingly, the Miyashita Documents have also become linked to the leisure industry. Nishi-Fuji Auto Camp advertises the theme "Verifying Takamagahara through the Miyashita Documents," transforming a simple camping experience into "a stay in the ancient utopia" with the phrase "The Kingdom of Longevity revived after 6,000 years." Here, the authenticity of the documents is secondary; the "romance" and "mystique" that the narrative provides function as a spice for consuming the natural landscape.

On the other hand, there are also moves toward academic preservation. Materials including the Miyashita Documents are preserved and made available at the Tōyō Gakuen University Archives in Bunkyō Ward, Tokyo. The fact that materials are managed at two locations—the local site at the foot of Mount Fuji (Ōmyōken) and a university in Tokyo (Hongō)—demonstrates the dual nature of the Miyashita Documents as both "an object of faith" and "an object of research."

The worldview of the Miyashita Documents is not confined within books but is deeply imprinted on the geographical space around Mount Fuji. Place names like "Kagosaka Tunnel," "Toriiji Tunnel," and "Yamamiya Tunnel" indicate key transportation points connecting Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures, while simultaneously symbolizing how former "paths into the sacred domain" have become modern logistics and tourism arteries.⁹

The climbing route divisions of Mount Fuji (Umagaeshi, First to Ninth Station, Summit) are also deeply connected to the Miyashita Documents. "Umagaeshi" (literally "horse return") marks the departure point from the secular world, the boundary where horses were turned back and pilgrims entered the sacred domain on foot."Otainai" (womb interior)refers to lava caves formed by Mount Fuji's eruptions. Because the interior resembles a human womb, passing through was believed to purify sins and defilements, enabling spiritual rebirth—a practice called "tainai-kuguri" (passing through the womb). At the summit, "Kinmei-sui" (golden clear water) is considered sacred spring water, directly connected to the "immortality" philosophy of the Miyashita Documents.

The Old Kamakura Highway running parallel to National Route 138, the Chūō Expressway, and the Higashi-Fuji Five Lakes Road—we travel through and consume what were once sacred sites at high speed via highways and tunnels. Those interested in the Miyashita Documents use this modern infrastructure for their "sacred site pilgrimages," reconstructing ancient landscapes within contemporary views.

From an academic perspective, the Miyashita Documents are classified as "forgeries" or "Koshi Koden" (alternative ancient histories), and proving them as historical fact is difficult. The presence of descriptions reflecting post-Meiji institutions, such as shrine ranking terminology (anachronisms), serves as decisive evidence when considering the documents' date of composition.

Shinkōki first became known to the public during the Taishō era. In 1921 (Taishō 10), it was compiled by Miwa Yoshihiroand published by Ryūbunkan. This substantial work of 561 pages appeared during a time when Japan, having achieved modernization, was experiencing a renewed sense of national identity.²

While State Shinto based on the Kiki myths was established as orthodox, there was also a spirit of inquiry seeking "truths omitted from official history," which helped fuel the publishing boom of Koshi Koden texts. Condition descriptions in the antiquarian book market ("lacking slipcase," "library label on spine," "ownership seals") attest that this book has been continuously read for over a century in libraries and private collections— evidence that it has served as a kind of "primary source" rather than merely a passing fad.

Interest in Shinkōki has not waned even in the 21st century. In March 2011, the Kanagawa Xu Fu Research Association and the Shinkōki Publication Committee issued a new edition titled Modern Japanese Translation of Shinkōki: Ancient Japan as Recorded by Xu Fu—The Fuji Ancient Documents, published by Kyō no Wadaisha. While the Taishō edition employed classical literary styles with Chinese-influenced prose, the modern translation aims to reach a broader readership.³

Shinkōki is divided into four main books, each serving a unique role in constructing the overall historical worldview.

Book One: "The Volume of Divine Emperors" addresses the beginning of the world and the genealogy of the gods. It covers the creation of heaven and earth to the birth of deities (Pre-Chronicle—Divine Spirits), the accomplishments of successive "Divine Emperors" (Main Chronicle—Divine Emperors), and the transition from the age of gods to the age of humans (Post-Chronicle—Human Emperors). Central to this is the Fuji Takamagahara Theory, which claims that an extensive era of "Divine Emperors" preceded Emperor Jimmu, with their capital located in the "Takamagahara" (High Plain of Heaven) at the foot of Mount Fuji.⁴

Book Two: "The Volume of the Divine Shrine" focuses on the Asoyama Taijingū (Grand Shrine of Asoyama), which served as the center of both politics and ritual. This was purportedly the site where successive Divine Emperors performed enthronement ceremonies and conducted governmental affairs, and where ancient records and treasures were dedicated and preserved. This setting provides an explanation for why records remained hidden until modern times: the secrecy of Asoyama Taijingū, or the loss and concealment of documents due to volcanic eruptions and warfare.

Book Three: "The Volume of the Shrine Priests" focuses on the people who preserved and transmitted the records. It recounts the lineage of the Hata clan (said to be descendants of Xu Fu) and the Miyashita family, who served as chief priests generation after generation, fulfilling their role as witnesses to history. The assertion of legitimacy not only of "what was written" but also of "the family that transmitted it" is a characteristic shared with the succession systems of traditional Japanese performing arts and martial arts.

Book Four: "The Volume of Xu Fu" contains records concerning Xu Fu himself, the chronicler. It includes Xu Fu's biography, his position in Qin, and the circumstances of his voyage (First Part—Xu Fu of Qin), as well as the actual records he is said to have left behind (Second Part—The Divine Emperor's Writings). It also contains legends of arrival at "Hōraisan" (Mount Fuji as the Isle of the Immortals) and "prophecies" functioning as future records, serving a nationalistic function of positioning Japanese culture as older and superior to continental culture.⁵

One of the most important themes in Shinkōki and related Koshi Koden texts is the existence of the Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty. While the Kiki texts barely mention Ugayafukiaezu (鵜葺草葺不合命) merely as the father of Emperor Jimmu, the Koshi Koden describe him as the founder of a vast dynasty spanning thousands of years.

Records concerning the Ugaya Dynasty can be broadly classified into three traditions.The first tradition, represented by Uetsufumi and the Takeuchi Documents, describes a dynasty lasting from several dozen to over seventy generations in great detail.The second tradition, the Fuji Miyashita Documents (Shinkōki), differs from the first in the number of generations and the names of rulers, with some generations missing.The third tradition,Shinden Jōdai Tennōki, agrees on the total of 72 generations but differs entirely in emperor names, capital locations, and mausoleum sites.⁶

Regarding the historicity of the Ugaya Dynasty, comparisons have also been made with oral traditions known as "the Oral Traditions of Hida." According to these Hida legends, the Ugaya Dynasty was a polity centered on religious leaders called "Uwakata-sama," suggesting spiritual governance through religious authority rather than rule by military force. Some have suggested that stone circles and pyramid-like structures found at Jōmon period sites may be traces of this type of religious governance.

The worldview of Shinkōki did not remain confined to books but exerted profound influence on Japan's martial arts community. Particularly notable is the relationship betweenTakamatsu Toshitsugu (高松壽嗣, 1889–1972), often called "the last combat ninja," and the Kukishin-ryū tradition he transmitted— a prime example of the fusion between Koshi Koden and embodied knowledge.⁷

From age 25 to 30, Takamatsu traveled to China (Tianjin), serving as president of the "Japan-Republic of China Youth Martial Virtue Association" and instructing approximately 3,000 members. He won matches against representatives of various jūjutsu schools and earned the nickname "Tiger of Mongolia." After returning to Japan in 1919, he was called "the Cat of Yamato," teaching successors at his dōjō in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, while also deepening his religious activities as a Tendai Buddhist monk. His teachings went beyond mere fighting techniques, incorporating a comprehensive practice that included the cosmology of Koshi Koden.

Particularly notable in Takamatsu's activities was his involvement with the "Kuki Documents." The Kuki Documents are ancient texts transmitted by the Kuki family, famous for the Kuki Navy, and constitute one of the Koshi Koden texts containing accounts of the Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty. In 1920, Takamatsu made copies of the Kuki family scrolls, but in 1945, air raids during World War II destroyed nearly all of the Kuki family's original materials. In 1949, Takamatsu added explanations to his copied versions, rewrote the esoteric texts, and dedicated the restored documents to the Kuki family.⁸

Many notable martial artists emerged from among Takamatsu's disciples. Kimura Masaji received full transmission of Kukishin-ryū bōjutsu and jūjutsu in 1938; Satō Kinbei received full transmission of Takagi Yōshin-ryū and Kukishin-ryū in 1952, and Gyokkan-ryū in 1963, becoming known also as a researcher of classical Japanese martial arts; Hatsumi Masaaki founded the Bujinkan and spread ninjutsu worldwide. Through these disciples, the worldview of Shinkōki and the Kuki Documents has been preserved into the present day, inseparable from martial arts body techniques.

By the standards of academic history, it is difficult to verify as historical fact the "Divine Emperor Dynasty" or "Xu Fu's records" described in Shinkōki. There are many contradictions with linguistic analysis and archaeological evidence.

Centering on Mount Fuji as an overwhelming natural symbol and dreaming of the world's oldest civilization at its foot provided an attractive anchor of identity for many people. The 2011 publication of the modern translation and continued trading in the used book market prove that this text remains a living document. The fact that martial arts organizations descended from Takamatsu Toshitsugu are active worldwide suggests that the spirituality of Shinkōkihas become part of a global cultural phenomenon in transformed guise.

To learn about Shinkōki in depth is not merely to understand the contents of a curious book. It means gaining a deeper understanding of thelonging for "lost ancient wisdom"that the Japanese have harbored, the narrative of self-affirmation through the Other figure of Xu Fu, and the spiritual history of those who sought to embody these ideas through physical practice—the martial arts. The seeds planted by Miwa Yoshihiro in the Taishō era continue to put down complex and rich roots today, nurtured by Xu Fu research societies and martial artists alike.

Regarding the date and compiler of the Uetsufumi, important traditions remain that assert the document's legitimacy. According to these accounts, the text as we know it today was compiled during the early Kamakura period.

The person said to have led this compilation wasŌtomo Yoshinao (大友能直, 1172-1223), a powerful retainer of the Kamakura shogunate who became the first military governor of Bungo and Buzen provinces².

According to tradition, when Yoshinao entered Bungo in 1196 (Kenkyū 7), he immediately began collecting ancient documents and oral traditions preserved at shrines and old families throughout his domain. He is portrayed not as a merely martial ruler, but assomeone with deep respect for the region's ancient culture.

The group of scholars Yoshinao assembled dedicated themselves to re-gathering scattered ancient records and integrating them into a unified compilation. This work took several decades to complete, reportedly finishing in1223 (Jōō 2), just before Yoshinao's death. This date of "1223" serves as a crucial reference point for understanding the Uetsufumi's formation.

Why did Ōtomo Yoshinao need to compile a history text different from the central (Kamakura/Kyoto) historical perspective? Understanding this requires examining the political and geopolitical context of the time.

If the Kiki mythology served as a political document to establish the legitimacy of the Yamato court (Kinai region), then the Uetsufumi represents a "counter-history" asserting that"eastern Kyushu (Toyokuni) was the true center of ancient Japan."

The "Toyokuni (Land of Abundance)" region, encompassing Bungo and Buzen, was home to Usa Shrine and had long maintained its own religious and political influence. For the Ōtomo clan to govern this land effectively, reconstructing and celebrating an "ancient history centered on Toyokuni" predating the Kiki mythology would have been an extremely effective strategy of cultural governance.

The most distinctive feature of the Uetsufumi's historical narrative is the overwhelming volume dedicated to the"Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty."

In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Ugayafukiaezu (鵜葺草葺不合命) appears merely as a genealogical link— the son of Yamasachihiko and father of Emperor Jinmu. However, in the Uetsufumi, Ugayafukiaezu is treated not as an individual's name but as a dynastic title (hereditary name) passed down through a long-lasting dynasty³.

According to the Uetsufumi, the Ugayafukiaezu Dynasty continued from its founder through over 70 generations(varying between 72 and 73 depending on the manuscript), ruling the Japanese archipelago—and indeed the world—for thousands of years. This account implies that a highly organized, massive dynasty existed before Emperor Jinmu's enthronement (traditionally dated to 660 BCE), fundamentally rewriting the timeline of Japanese history.

Notably, the records from the 55th to 68th generations arecompletely missing. According to Uetsufumi researchers, this is because the original texts were scattered and lost over the long course of history. From a skeptical perspective, deliberately creating "gaps" could be seen as a technique to lend authenticity to the document as an ancient manuscript, while sympathetic researchers view this as evidence that extensive records once existed.

The description of this dynasty takes the form not of mythological narrative but of remarkably concrete administrative records. For example, each successive ruler was served by"Five Ministers" (go-shin), suggesting a division of labor resembling a modern cabinet system. Records of imperial progresses and detailed regulations for regional governance indicate a ruling network extending across the entire Japanese archipelago while maintaining Toyokuni as the capital.

Another major characteristic of the Uetsufumi is its use of a unique divine age script called"Toyokuni script". This writing system, neither Chinese characters nor kana, stands alongside the Woshite script of the Hotsuma Tsutae and the divine age script of the Takeuchi Documents as evidence supporting claims of "indigenous Japanese writing before the introduction of Chinese characters."

In actual Uetsufumi manuscripts,Toyokuni script is mixed with classical Chinese and Man'yōgana. From an academic perspective, the forms of Toyokuni script appear to show influences from later writing systems such as Hangul, which serves as one basis for questioning its claimed date of origin.

What most distinguishes the Uetsufumi from other koshikoden is how its content extends beyond history and mythology into the realms of biology, medicine, pharmacology, and agriculture. The descriptions of Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto (大国主命)particularly emphasize his role not as a mythological hero but as an ancient scientist and researcher⁴.

The Uetsufumi contains records of Ōkuninushi systematically classifying plants and fungi and verifying their effects. The specificity of these descriptions is remarkably reminiscent of modern scientific experimental protocols.

The most striking description concerns the "experimental methods" allegedly employed to make these classifications. According to the sources, Ōkuninushi used1,000 monkeys, 1,000 tanuki (raccoon dogs), and 1,000 dogs as test subjects to verify the safety of plants and fungi.

By mixing unknown plants and fungi into these animals' food and observing their physiological responses, he reportedly determined toxicity and medicinal efficacy. While "one thousand" is likely a rhetorical expression meaning "very many," the fact that the text describesthe concept of systematic toxicity testing using test subjectsis extraordinarily interesting from a history of science perspective.

At the end of this rigorous research, Ōkuninushi reportedly discovered a certain "mushroom" with effects of longevity and immortality. The tradition that he then decided to settle permanently in the land where this mushroom grew naturally suggests the close relationship between ancient people's views of life and death and food culture (particularly mushroom consumption).

Regarding the descriptions of mushroom veneration and medicinal use in the Uetsufumi, some researchers point to similarities with archaeological discoveries worldwide.

These observations suggest that the Uetsufumi's descriptions may not be mere fantasy, but rather reflect ancient natural knowledge and belief systems shared across the Eurasian continent.

The Uetsufumi, said to have been transmitted as a secret tradition only to the Ōtomo family and certain Shinto lineages before the Edo period, became widely known to the general public only from the Shōwa era onward. One person played a decisive role in its dissemination and study: the independent koshikoden researcherAgō Kiyohiko (吾郷清彦, 1909-2003)⁵.

Agō Kiyohiko devoted his entire life to the excavation and decipherment of koshikoden, and is regarded as the foremost authority on Uetsufumi research in particular. His greatest achievement was publishing the major workKoshi Seiden Uetsufumi (5 volumes), which translated into modern Japanesethe entire Uetsufumi, written in difficult Toyokuni script mixed with classical Chinese and Man'yōgana, and added extensive annotations.

Agō's research approach differed from academic historiography in that it proceeded from the premise that "the koshikoden accounts are factual." He positioned the Uetsufumi as the original source for the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, or as a "true history" preserving truths that those texts concealed.

His research strongly influenced postwar Japanese audiences seeking romance in ancient history and practitioners of Ko-Shinto (ancient Shinto), serving as a driving force behind a kind of"koshikoden boom."

From the perspective of academic historiography and linguistics, the Uetsufumi is generally considered aforgery (gisho)produced in later periods (primarily the Edo era).

However, even if its origins do not trace back to the divine age or Kamakura period, the cultural value of the Uetsufumi is not diminished.

A Protest from the Periphery: The Uetsufumi represents a powerful assertion of identity from Kyushu's Toyokuni region—the "periphery"— against the Yamato-centric historical view. It can be read as an expression of regional pride and identity opposing centralized historical narratives.

The Will to Systematize Knowledge: As seen in Ōkuninushi's herbal research, this text transcends mere history to function as a "knowledge encyclopedia" attempting to systematize the natural understanding and scientific knowledge that people of the time possessed (or idealized). The description of "animal experiments with 1,000 subjects" in particular suggestsa philosophy emphasizing empiricism and verification, making it extremely interesting from an intellectual history perspective.

A Crystallization of Religious Syncretism: The text contains complex fusions (syncretic blending) of Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and folk beliefs. This makes it valuable folklore material for understanding the religious worldview of Japanese people from the medieval to early modern periods.

In 701, the Taihō Code was enacted, establishing a centralized state modeled after Tang China's legal system—what is known as the ritsuryō state—across the Japanese archipelago. However, merely organizing laws and institutions was not enough to achieve true "rule."

For the Yamato court, centered on the emperor, to unify the diverse regional societies scattered across the archipelago and forge "Japan" as a nation, physical control through military force and tax collection alone was insufficient. Ideological control through the grasp of history and geography was equally indispensable.¹

During this period, the Kojiki was completed in 712 and the Nihon Shoki in 720—national histories compiled in quick succession. If these works organized "time (history)" from the perspective of royal authority, the Fudoki were an attempt to redefine "space (geography)" from the court's viewpoint. They were a grand national project to collect and catalog the resources, legends, and place-name origins lying dormant in each region.

According to the Shoku Nihongi, on the second day of the fifth month of Wadō 6 (713), Empress Genmei issued an edict to the provinces that directly triggered the compilation of the Fudoki.²This edict contained five specific demands that went beyond mere geographical recording, touching the very foundation of provincial governance.

These five items combined practical purposes—resource surveys—with political aims of cultural integration. The enforced use of "auspicious characters" deserves particular attention. The act of assigning centrally chosen kanji with favorable meanings to place names that had previously existed only as sounds symbolized rule through writing.

Moreover, the survey of products clearly aimed to gather baseline data for tribute goods (chō and yō) to be delivered to the court. The Fudoki were at once cultural records and documentation for taxation.

Following this order, it is presumed that reports were submitted from the sixty-odd provinces then in existence. Yet only five survive in substantial form today.³

Interestingly, the most striking feature of the surviving Fudoki is their diversity. In answering the same edict—the same "question"—the compilers of each province produced "answers" that differed dramatically, reflecting their region's political stance, cultural background, and the personalities of the writers.

Izumo proudly recorded its local mythology. Hitachi depicted an idealized utopia in elegant literary Chinese. Harima pursued place-name origins with obsessive thoroughness. The fact that what was supposed to be uniform official gazetteers turned out so varied is proof that the Fudoki hold cultural value far beyond mere administrative documents.

The Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki is believed to have been compiled around Yōrō 5 (721), about eight years after the edict.⁴At that time, Fujiwara no Umakai—who would later become the progenitor of the Fujiwara Shikike branch—was serving as governor of Hitachi. He had experience as a deputy ambassador to Tang China and was an intellectual whose works appear in the poetry anthology Kaifūsō. Takahashi no Mushimaro, a prominent poet in the Man'yōshū, was also stationed in Hitachi as Umakai's subordinate, making it highly likely they led the compilation.

A distinctive feature of the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki is its literary style. Rather than practical administrative prose, it makes abundant use of ornate, dignified Chinese modeled on parallel prose (pianli style). In the general preface, Hitachi Province is likened to "Tokoyo no Kuni" (the eternal land or utopia), praised with phrases such as "the bounty of sea and mountain can never be exhausted."

This was no mere flowery rhetoric. It served as propaganda, using elegant Chinese prose to demonstrate to court aristocrats that Hitachi—on the eastern frontier—was not a barbaric hinterland but a utopia blessed by imperial virtue.

Another notable aspect is the treatment of the hero Yamato Takeru. In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, he is portrayed as a "prince," but in this Fudoki he is consistently referred to as "Emperor Yamato Takeru."⁵His acts of touring the land, performing kunimisee ceremonies, digging wells, and naming places are precisely the rituals of an emperor as a living deity. There may have existed in the eastern regions an independent sphere of worship venerating Yamato Takeru as an ancestral god or as an actual great king.

The Harima no Kuni Fudoki is thought to have been compiled around Reiki 1 (715), just a few years after the edict.⁶Interestingly, this work is believed to have survived as a "draft" (kōhon)—an unfinished manuscript. Entries for Akō and Akashi districts are entirely missing, and there are inconsistencies in the text.

Yet it is precisely this "incomplete" state that gives it incalculable value. Because it did not undergo final review or fair-copying by the central bureaucracy, the raw local traditions and the trial-and-error process of the compilers are preserved as they were.

The most striking feature of the Harima no Kuni Fudoki is its relentless response to the edict's requirement of "place-name origins." It contains over three hundred and sixty place-name origin tales—far surpassing any of the other Five Great Fudoki in density. The protagonists of these tales fall into three broad categories: local deities, emperors (Ōjin, Keikō, etc.), and nameless common people.

Regional variations are also a fascinating discovery. In the southeastern areas closer to the Kinai heartland, tales involving emperors are numerous; in the northwest, tales of indigenous deities predominate. This may reflect the geographical extent of Yamato royal influence.

From an industrial-history perspective, the passage on sake brewing is especially noteworthy. It describes how rice offered to a deity became wet and moldy, and this moldy rice was used to brew sake—the oldest written record of Japanese sake brewing using kōji (mold).⁷

The Izumo no Kuni Fudoki was completed in Tenpyō 5 (733). Though it was finished roughly twenty years later than the other Fudoki, its greatest value lies in surviving as a "complete book" with almost no lacunae.⁸

The compilation was led not by a governor dispatched from the capital but by members of the local traditional clan—Izumo no Omi Hiroshima and others, who also served as Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko. As a result, the work is imbued with Izumo's own ideology, distinct from the mythological framework of the Kiki (Kojiki and Nihon Shoki).

The symbol of this stance is the "Land-Pulling Myth" recorded at the opening. While the Kojiki portrays Izumo as the land of "kuniyuzuri" (ceding the land)—where Susanoo and Ōkuninushi surrendered the land to the heavenly grandchild—there is no mention of kuniyuzuri at all in the Izumo no Kuni Fudoki.

Instead, it tells a grand creation myth: the giant deity Yatsuka-Mizu-Omitsuno no Mikoto declared, "The land of Izumo is still unfinished and narrow." He cast ropes to lands such as Silla (Korea) and Koshi (Hokuriku), pulled them toward him, and stitched them together, thus enlarging the nation. This is a powerful declaration of self-determination—that the land of Izumo was not passively handed over but formed by its own will and strength.

It also suggests that exchange and trade networks across the Sea of Japan were central to Izumo's identity.

The Bungo no Kuni Fudoki and Hizen no Kuni Fudoki remain as records of Kyushu (Saikaidō). This region was the closest "border" to the continent, serving as a window for diplomacy while also being a military front line under constant tension. Consciousness of foreign peoples, rebellious forces, and the world beyond the sea is vividly reflected in these Fudoki.

The Bungo no Kuni Fudoki is notable for its detailed accounts of the Tsuchigumo.⁹Tsuchigumo was a derogatory term for local forces who refused to submit to the court. Here they appear as organized groups led by two leaders named "Ao" and "Shiro," openly declaring, "We do not obey the emperor's commands." Meanwhile, female chieftains like Hayatsuhime also appear, playing a guiding role in suppressing the Tsuchigumo. This is evidence that women held political and military leadership in ancient Kyushu, and it records how local society was being divided into "pro-court" and "anti-court" factions.

The Hizen no Kuni Fudoki contains the story of "Matsuura Sayohime," one of Japan's three great tragic love legends.¹⁰It tells of the parting between General Ōtomo no Sadehiko, departing to aid the Korean peninsula, and Sayohime, a local woman who sees him off. She waved her scarf from a mountaintop until, overcome with grief, she turned to stone.

Intriguing is the layered nature of this legend. Appended to the parting scene is a "serpent bridegroom" tale: after the farewell, a man resembling Sadehiko visited the princess night after night, but his true identity was a serpent deity from the marsh. A state military campaign upended the fate of local women, and the trauma was etched into the land as legend.

Beyond the Five Great Fudoki, fragments of many other provincial Fudoki survive as quotations in later texts. Though fragmentary, they preserve extremely important myths and legends.

The most famous is the "Urashimako" legend from the Tango no Kuni Fudoki.¹¹This is the prototype of the modern "Urashima Tarō," but the content is more philosophical, deeply infused with Taoist beliefs in immortals.

The protagonist, Tsutsukawa no Shimako, is led by a five-colored turtle (actually a divine maiden) to "Hōrai" (Mt. Penglai, the eternal land) beneath the sea, where he weds the goddess. Three years later, driven by homesickness, he returns—only to find three hundred years have passed on earth. When he opens the jeweled box, his youth rises as a cloud and flies into the sky, leaving him an old man.

The fragment also records the poems the two exchanged at parting. "Yamatora da / koishiki kimochi o / wasure na yo" (the goddess urging, "Do not forget your longing for me"); "Tamakushige / akesariseba / aemashio ni" (a later poet lamenting, "If only you hadn't opened the box, you could have met again"). Depicting the asymmetry between human time and divine time, and the tragedy that comes from breaking a taboo, this is one of the pinnacles of "otherworld journey tales" in Japanese literature.

The Fudoki were not one-sided "survey reports" from the center. They were records of a tense "dialogue" between center and periphery.

The center demanded the enforcement of auspicious characters, control of products, and integration into an emperor-centric history. In response, the provinces answered by asserting local mythology (Izumo), showcasing regional abundance (Hitachi, Harima), and preserving memories of tragedy (Hizen). Within the framework of the edict, compilers in each province strove to inscribe the identity of their own land.

The compilation of the Fudoki also marked a historical turning point from "oral" to "written." The stories "handed down by village elders" gained permanence by being committed to writing. At the same time, the corporeality of live storytelling and the nuances that resist transcription were lost. The variant Chinese script of the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki, and the Man'yōgana used in songs within the Fudoki, are traces of the struggle of ancient Japanese to pour their language's "sounds" into the vessel of Chinese-derived "characters."

To "know the Fudoki deeply" is not merely to memorize plot summaries or product names. It is to relive the spiritual drama of how people during that era of nation-building perceived and gave meaning to the land they inhabited, and how they confronted central authority.

The self-reliance shown in the Land-Pulling Myth of the Izumo no Kuni Fudoki, the radiant depiction of an ideal realm in the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki, the earthy persistence of place-name origins in the Harima no Kuni Fudoki—each is an essential stratum forming Japan's cultural depths. The headwaters of what we today call "local pride" and "regional identity" are already vividly inscribed in these documents written thirteen hundred years ago.

In the history of ancient state formation on the Japanese archipelago, the region known as "Himuka"—encompassing present-day Miyazaki Prefecture and parts of Kagoshima Prefecture—held an extraordinarily special significance far beyond that of a mere provincial territory. The core narratives of Japan's foundation myths recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (collectively known as the "Kiki")—from the Descent of the Heavenly Grandchild to the Eastern Expedition of Emperor Jimmu—all unfold upon this very stage.¹

For the ancient people, Himuka was the inevitable setting as "the fountainhead of the sun"—the place where the ancestral deity bearing the majesty of Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess, would descend to earth. This mythological space depicts the grand process of integrating the three cosmic realms—the heavens (Takamagahara), the terrestrial world (Ashihara no Nakatsukuni), and the sea realm (Watatsumi)—ultimately leading to the establishment of unified royal authority in Yamato.

At the core of Himuka mythology lies the divine lineage known as the "Three Generations of Himuka" (Himuka Sandai). The story of these three generations can be read not merely as a family chronicle, but as a "tale of nation-building" that connects the celestial realm, the earthly realm, and the world of the sea.

By tracing the story woven by these three generations, we can glimpse how ancient Japanese people conceived of "the beginning of the nation," and why the Yamato royal house placed such importance on the land of Himuka.

The starting point of the narrative is the "Tenson Kōrin" (Descent of the Heavenly Grandchild)—when Ninigi no Mikoto, receiving the divine command of Amaterasu Ōmikami, descended from Takamagahara to the peak of Takachiho in Himuka. Ninigi no Mikoto received the divine decree to "rule the earthly realm," and, leading an entourage of deities, is said to have descended upon "the soaring peak of Takachiho in Himuka of Tsukushi."²

This descent was the act of bringing the cosmos (order) of heaven into the terrestrial world, which had been in a state of chaos. It symbolizes the commencement of agriculture (wet-rice cultivation) and the introduction of primitive forms of governance. From a mythological perspective, it narrates how the technology of "wet-rice agriculture" brought by Ninigi formed the very foundation of Japanese civilization.

The most remarkable feature of Himuka mythology is that it is not merely a "dead story" confined to texts, but is vividly preserved in local communities through the physical practice of "kagura" (sacred dance). The "Takachiho no Yokagura" (Night Kagura of Takachiho), passed down in Takachiho Town, is designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property and annually reenacts the world of mythology through thirty-three dances.³

Yokagura is not mere entertainment. Through the rigorous process of "descent → purification of space → construction of sacred precinct → divine-human communion → ascent of the gods," it functions as a system for annually renewing the community's cosmic order. Notably, the description in "Jigatame" of irrigating farmland using the sword (the virtue of water) demonstrates a remarkable fusion of the technical and mythological aspects of the wet-rice agriculture that Ninigi brought.

The first significant act Ninigi no Mikoto performed upon reaching earth was his marriage to Konohanasakuya-hime, the daughter of the local deity Ōyamatsumi no Kami. This episode is of utmost theological importance as a turning point that determined the nature of life for the emperor (and for humans).

Ninigi fell in love at first sight with the beautiful Konohanasakuya-hime and proposed marriage. Her father, Ōyamatsumi, was delighted and offered her along with her elder sister, Iwanaga-hime. However, Ninigi, repelled by Iwanaga-hime's ugliness, sent only her back.

Ōyamatsumi was angered and prophesied: "Had you also taken Iwanaga-hime, your children's lives would have been eternal like rock. Because you chose only Konohanasakuya-hime, your children's lives will be as fleeting as the blossoms of trees."⁴

This story is connected to specific locations such as Tsuma Shrine in Saito City and the Aisomegawa River, now promoted as "Japan's oldest romantic pilgrimage." The Japanese sensibility of cherishing cherry blossoms and finding beauty in their transience—the wellspring of "mono no aware" (the pathos of things) and the "aesthetic of ephemerality"—lies within this myth.

The story takes an even more dramatic turn. When Konohanasakuya-hime became pregnant from a single night's union, Ninigi harbored suspicions: "Could this be the child of a kunitsukami (earthly deity)?"

To prove her innocence and the divine nature of her children, the princess entered a doorless birthing hut and set it ablaze, giving birth within the flames—enduring an extreme ordeal. The three deities born safely amid the fire (Hoderi, Hosuseri, and Hoori) were recognized as "true children of the heavenly grandchild," having been born through fire's sacred purifying power.⁵

In the Saitobaru Kofun Group spread across Saito City, Miyazaki Prefecture, there exist massive burial mounds said to be the tombs of the protagonists of this mythology.

Archaeologically, these kofun were constructed between the 4th and 5th centuries, which places them at a distance from the mythological era. However, the fact that local people and later ruling classes reinterpreted these massive monuments as tombs of mythological ancestors was of crucial importance in the formation of Himuka's regional identity. The seamless interweaving of myth and archaeological remains encapsulates the distinctiveness of Himuka as a land.

The second-generation story unfolds around sibling conflict and a journey to the sea. The tale of Hoderi (Umisachihiko/Sea Luck Prince) and Hoori (Yamasachihiko/Mountain Luck Prince) functions as a political allegory symbolizing the Yamato royal house's integration of the maritime peoples of southern Kyushu.

The two brothers exchanged their tools (bow and arrows for a fishhook), but Yamasachihiko lost his elder brother's precious fishhook. To search for the lost fishhook, Yamasachihiko journeyed to the palace of the sea deity beneath the waves. There he met and married Toyotama-hime, the daughter of the sea god.⁶

A major shrine associated with this story is Aoshima Shrine in Miyazaki City. This shrine, which enshrines Yamasachihiko and Toyotama-hime, treats the entire island as sacred ground and is imagined as the gateway to the sea god's palace.

The myth of Umisachihiko and Yamasachihiko conceals important political implications. For the Yamato court, the pacification of the "Hayato" and "Kumaso" who inhabited southern Kyushu was a crucial political objective.⁷

In the myth, the conclusion where Umisachihiko (the elder brother) is defeated by Yamasachihiko (the younger brother = the ancestor of the imperial line) and pledges to "serve forever as a guardian (actor)" functions as an etiological tale—justifying the historical reality of Hayato subjugation (and their service at court as guards and performers).

In other words, Himuka mythology can be seen as a device for retroactively establishing "the legitimacy of Yamato's rule over the frontier" as a promise made in the age of the gods.

The child born to Yamasachihiko and Toyotama-hime is Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto, who completes the Three Generations of Himuka.

Toyotama-hime came from the sea to land to give birth, but the child was born before the roof of the birthing hut could be completely thatched with cormorant feathers (fukiaezu—"not yet thatched"). This is the origin of the name "Ugayafukiaezu." His mother, Toyotama-hime, ashamed that her true form (a wani/shark or crocodile) had been seen during childbirth, returned to the sea.⁸

Udo Shrine in Nichinan City has its main hall ensconced within a cave on a cliff facing the Hyūganada Sea. This cave is believed to be the very site of Ugayafukiaezu's birthing hut. The unique landscape of crashing waves and cave visually embodies the boundary between the otherworld (the sea) and the present world (the land).

Ugayafukiaezu married his aunt Tamayori-hime and fathered four princes. The youngest of these was "Kamuyamato Iwarebiko no Mikoto (Emperor Jimmu)." He spent his days at the palace of Takachiho, but thinking "there appears to be a good land in the east," he resolved to set out in order to peacefully rule all under heaven.

The traditional departure point for Emperor Jimmu's Eastern Expedition is Mimitsu in Hyūga City. Here, vivid and tangible local traditions remain.⁹

The journey from Himuka to Yamato has been developed as the "Mythological Road" tourist route within Miyazaki Prefecture. It demonstrates that Emperor Jimmu did not merely pass through, but left spiritual footprints at each location, structuring the entire prefecture as a "corridor of mythology."

Himuka mythology is at once a political text compiled to assert the legitimacy of Japanese state formation, and a religious epic that crystallizes reverence for the rich natural environment of southern Kyushu—its volcanoes, seas, and forests.

Contemporary Miyazaki Prefecture's tourism strategy as "the homeland of mythology" is an attempt to reinterpret these ancient narratives in modern contexts (romance, power spots, healing) and allow visitors to relive them. The way archaeological sites like the Saitobaru Kofun Group and the narratives of the Kiki are told as an inseparable whole encapsulates the distinctiveness and importance of Himuka in Japan's historical consciousness.

During the Edo period, scholars such as Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Ise Sadatake, and Tada Yoshitoshi examined the text in detail and uncovered decisive contradictions.²

The most fatal flaw was chronological impossibility. The text contains numerous quotations from the Kojiki (712), Nihon Shoki (720), and even the Kogo Shūi (807). A book supposedly completed in 622 could not possibly quote a text from 807—a clear anachronism.

Moreover, the text features posthumous reign names (shigō) for emperors that did not exist during Suiko's time, as well as official titles and place names from later eras. The style of the preface is also unnatural for the Suiko period, showing clear imitation of early Heian legal documents.

When, then, was the text actually written? Modern scholarship has significantly narrowed the date of composition by combining internal evidence with external references.

The most certain terminus post quem (earliest possible date) is the presence of quotations from the Kogo Shūi, completed in 807. Thus, the text must date to 807 or later. Furthermore, the text mentions "Kaga Province," which was established in 823 when it was separated from Echizen Province. If this is not a later interpolation, the text must date to 823 or after.

The terminus ante quem (latest possible date) is provided by the Nihongi Kōen—official lectures on the Nihon Shoki held between 904 and 906—where lecturer Fujiwara no Harumi referenced the Sendai Kuji Hongi. This proves that by the early 10th century, the text was already widely circulated and recognized as authoritative.

Scholar Yasumoto Biten suggests that the text was most likely compiled in the late 820s (circa 827–829), based on the activities of proposed compilers and the cultural context of the time.³

The most striking feature of this text is how elaborately and reverently it treats the Mononobe clan and their ancestral deity Nigihayahi no Mikoto—figures who appear in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as merely one clan subordinate to the imperial house. This has led scholars to the near-unanimous conclusion that the compiler was connected to the Mononobe lineage.

The most likely candidate is Okihara no Miniku, a Heian-period jurist (myōbō hakase) whose original clan name was "Mononobe." He participated in compiling the Ryō no Gige (a commentary on the administrative codes) and possessed considerable expertise in organizing and synthesizing official documents. His period of activity matches the estimated date of composition (the 820s).

Why would someone in the 9th century go to the trouble of composing such a chronicle under the guise of "Prince Shōtoku's authorship"? The answer lies in the political and social context of early Heian Japan.

The early Heian period was an era when the Fujiwara clan was systematically excluding other clans and monopolizing political power. Former elite clans like the Mononobe and Owari felt their political status slipping away. The Nihon Shoki, as a "history written by the victors," had been compiled to establish the legitimacy of the imperial house and the Fujiwara (formerly Nakatomi) clan—either silencing or marginalizing Mononobe traditions.

The Mononobe did not see themselves as mere "subjects of the throne" but as "descendants of a deity (Nigihayahi) who descended from heaven just as the imperial ancestors did." To assert this pride and the legitimacy of their unique rituals (such as the chinkon-sai pacification rite), they needed a history book centered on their own clan—distinct from the Kiki.

The work comprises ten volumes, and its contents can be divided into two categories: "passages borrowed from the Kiki and Kogo Shūi" and "unique traditions."

Volume 1, "Jindai Hongi" (Chronicle of the Age of the Gods), and Volume 2, "Jingi Hongi" (Chronicle of Divine Rites), cover from the creation of the world to the Ama-no-Iwato myth. Volume 4, "Chigi Hongi" (Chronicle of Earthly Deities), treats Izumo mythology and the "ceding of the land" (kuniyuzuri). Volumes 6–9, from "Kōson Hongi" (Chronicle of the Heavenly Grandson) through "Teiō Hongi" (Chronicle of Emperors), cover the celestial descent through the successive emperors to Empress Suiko—these sections draw primarily on the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Kogo Shūi.

However, Volume 3 "Tenjin Hongi," Volume 5 "Tenson Hongi," and Volume 10 "Kokuzo Hongi" contain unique traditions found nowhere else. These represent the true source-critical value of the text.

The ideological center of the text lies in Volume 3, "Tenjin Hongi" (Chronicle of Heavenly Deities). Here, the descent of Nigihayahi no Mikoto, ancestral deity of the Mononobe, is portrayed as a grand event predating the "celestial descent" (tenson kōrin) of Ninigi no Mikoto, ancestor of the imperial line.

According to this account, Nigihayahi rode the "Ama no Iwafune" (Heavenly Rock-Boat) and descended upon Mt. Ikaruga in Kawachi Province before moving to Yamato. While the Nihon Shoki mentions this briefly, the Sendai Kuji Hongi elaborates the narrative in detail, emphasizing that Nigihayahi possessed legitimate divine authority as a heavenly deity.

The most significant element is the "Ten Kinds of Sacred Treasures" (Tokusa no Kandakara) that Nigihayahi received from the heavenly ancestor deities.⁴This passage serves as the origin myth for the Chinkon-sai (soul-pacification rite) administered by the Mononobe clan, positioning them as "indispensable spiritual guardians who support the rituals of the imperial house."

Volume 5, "Tenson Hongi," provides detailed genealogies of the Owari and Mononobe clans as descendants of Nigihayahi. These are believed to derive from the now-lost "Owari Clan Genealogy" and Mononobe family records.

Here one finds many marital alliances between clans and processes of branch-family formation that are entirely absent from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Information on relations with the Amabe clan and networks with regional magnates makes this an irreplaceable resource for analyzing the complex structure of ancient clan society.

The volume most highly valued by historians is Volume 10, "Kokuzo Hongi" (Chronicle of Provincial Chieftains).⁵This section lists the 144 provinces of pre-Taika Japan, recording for each the province name, the name of the founding kokuzo, the period of appointment, and their clan affiliation.

Research by scholars such as Niino Naoyoshi and Kamada Jun'ichi has shown that although some later terminology has crept in, the list is fundamentally based on authentic administrative records from before the Taika Reform. It contains numerous kokuzo names and place names absent from the Kiki, and when cross-referenced with archaeological findings, it enables reconstruction of how the Yamato polity's control over the provinces expanded.

For example, the concentration of Mononobe-affiliated kokuzo in the Kantō region is important data suggesting the Mononobe clan's role in the governance of the eastern provinces.

From the mid-Heian period onward, the text acquired unquestioned authority as a work by Prince Shōtoku. In medieval Shinto traditions such as Ise Shinto and Yoshida Shinto, it was valued even above the Kiki. Passages on the Ten Sacred Treasures and unique ritual practices became key sources for constructing Shinto esoteric doctrines and theories.

With the rise of Kokugaku (National Learning) in the Edo period, however, the Kiki came to be treated as absolute, and the Sendai Kuji Hongi was attacked. Further confusion arose in 1679 when a 72-volume fabrication called the Sendai Kuji Hongi Taiseiky appeared.⁶

In modern historiography, the label "forgery" does not necessarily mean a source has no value. Rather, the questions "Why was it forged?" and "Who needed these narratives?" become keys to understanding the intellectual and political history of the period.

Today's scholarly consensus treats the text as a "composite source". Approaches include textual criticism comparing variants with the Kiki to trace survivals of older traditions; mapping the "Kokuzo Hongi" data via GIS to visualize ancient regional divisions; and mythological analysis of the Nigihayahi narrative as a "counter-myth" to the Kiki's imperial-descendant–centered mythology.

The Sendai Kuji Hongi is a "forgery" in that it was not authored by Prince Shōtoku. Yet within it are sealed precious ancient traditions and administrative data that early Heian intellectuals could still collect—material absent from the Kiki. Like fossils embedded in geological strata, these reveal the political structures and social realities of ancient Japan beneath the thick layers of the Kiki.

This text is "another ancient Japanese history"—one written by the vanquished or marginalized (the Mononobe and Owari clans) in response to the official histories (Kiki) compiled by the victors. For researchers, the Sendai Kuji Hongi is an indispensable compass for relativizing the Kiki as a "completed history" and arriving at a richer, more complex picture of the ancient world.

Jinnō Shōtōki (Chronicle of the Direct Descent of Gods and Sovereigns) is a historical treatise written by Kitabatake Chikafusa, a court noble of the Southern Court, in 1339 (Engen 4).¹However, this is no ordinary historical text. It was a "fighting history book," written in a besieged castle while surrounded by enemy forces—penned in the face of death itself.

At that time, Japan was divided into two courts. In Kyoto stood the Northern Court, supported by Ashikaga Takauji. In Yoshino resided the Southern Court, the legitimate line of Emperor Go-Daigo. The Kamakura shogunate had fallen, and Go-Daigo's "Kenmu Restoration" had also collapsed, leaving people's values shaken to their foundations. The question "Which emperor is legitimate?" was not merely an academic debate—it was a life-or-death political struggle.

Chikafusa wrote this treatise at Oda Castle in Hitachi Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture).²Besieged by Northern Court and Ashikaga forces, cut off from the outside world, he conceived and continued writing this book during the siege. There was no time to leisurely examine sources or craft elegant prose. What Chikafusa needed were "powerful words" to inspire his warrior allies, steady the wavering Southern Court, and above all, awaken the young new emperor to his role as sovereign.

Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293–1354) was born into the prestigious Murakami Genji lineage, descended from Emperor Murakami. The Kitabatake family had served in important court positions for generations, and Chikafusa himself was one of Emperor Go-Daigo's closest advisors.

Yet his life was far removed from the elegance of court life. With a brush in one hand and a sword in the other, he fought alongside his sons Akiie and Akitobu, campaigning across the Tōhoku and Kantō regions in deadly combat against the Ashikaga forces. He was a "nobleman-general"—an aristocrat who spent his life on the battlefield. This fierce dedication is the source of the assertive tone and intense passion that characterizes this work.

The primary purpose of this treatise was to serve as an educational text—a "mirror for princes"—for Emperor Go-Murakami, who had succeeded Go-Daigo.³At the same time, it was also propaganda aimed at the warrior clans of Kantō. For the Southern Court, which was militarily weaker, the "righteous cause" was an essential spiritual weapon against the Northern Court.

The opening passage of Jinnō Shōtōki is supremely famous: "Great Japan is the Divine Nation. The Heavenly Progenitor first laid its foundations, and the Sun Goddess has transmitted the throne through an unbroken line. This exists only in our nation. There is no parallel in foreign lands." This declaration was not mere national boasting. Chikafusa was arguing that Japan's political system was based on fundamentally different principles from those of China or India.

In China, dynasties that lost their virtue were overthrown and replaced by new ones—a principle known as the "Dynastic Revolution" (yìxìng gémìng). But in Japan, the imperial bloodline had continued unbroken without interruption. Chikafusa believed this "unbroken imperial line" was Japan's unique characteristic. The emperor's position was guaranteed not by human contract or military force, but by divine will.

Through this logic, Chikafusa sought to prove at a cosmic level the illegitimacy of warriors like Ashikaga Takauji holding supreme power. No matter how powerful one's military might, for someone without divine blood to become sovereign was simply impossible within Japan's national character.

The term "shōtō" (legitimate succession) in the title originally comes from Chinese scholarship (Song Confucianism) and refers to the rightful heir of a dynasty. Chikafusa introduced this concept to Japanese history as a criterion for judging the legitimacy of imperial succession.

According to Chikafusa, three conditions were necessary for an emperor to be legitimate. First, bloodline—being of the imperial lineage. Second, the sacred regalia—possessing the Three Sacred Treasures. Third, virtue—having the ethical qualities befitting a sovereign.

In the Northern-Southern Court schism, the Northern emperor had the bloodline, but lacked the "sacred regalia" (according to Chikafusa, the Northern Court's regalia were forgeries) and was lacking in "virtue" because he was supported by the rebel Ashikaga clan. In contrast, Emperor Go-Murakami of the Southern Court had inherited the legitimate "sacred regalia" and carried on Go-Daigo's legacy, making him the legitimate sovereign.

Chikafusa interpreted the Three Sacred Treasures not as mere treasures, but as symbols of the inner virtues a sovereign should possess.⁴The emphasis on "honesty" and "compassion" was both a critique of an age that overvalued military power and a high ethical demand placed on rulers.

One characteristic of Jinnō Shōtōki is its extremely harsh evaluation of past emperors. Chikafusa did not worship emperors unconditionally. Rather, he leveled sharp criticism at "emperors lacking virtue."

For example, he describes the reign of the tyrant Emperor Buretsu as "deserved consequences" for his behavior. He also analyzes the Retired Emperor Go-Toba, who challenged the shogunate to restore imperial authority and was defeated in the Jōkyū War, acknowledging his aspirations while coolly noting the flaws in his planning and his lack of "virtue" and "favorable timing."

This realism shows that Chikafusa was not a fanatical emperor-worshiper but a cold-eyed politician. What mattered to him was not "individual emperors" but the perpetuity of the imperial system itself. To protect that system, he believed one had to face the failures of individual monarchs directly and learn from them.

The greatest surprise in Chikafusa's historical view is his assessment of warrior rule. He does not completely reject the warrior regimes that were supposedly enemies of the court. His evaluation of Minamoto no Yoritomo and Hōjō Yasutoki, in particular, is remarkably high.

Of Minamoto no Yoritomo, he praises the achievement of ending years of civil war and bringing peace to the people as "in accordance with divine will." Of Hōjō Yasutoki, he lauds the establishment of a fair judicial system (the Goseibai Shikimoku) and his benevolent governance.

Chikafusa believed that when the imperial house lost virtue and lacked the ability to govern, Amaterasu Ōmikami would temporarily "entrust" political power to the warriors. He called this "provisional regency" (kari no sessei). Yoritomo and Yasutoki had governed well on behalf of the emperor, thus their power was justified.⁵

This logic was a thoughtful way to incorporate the existence of warrior rule within an emperor-centered historical view, but it also shows that Chikafusa valued the substantive achievement of governance—"peace for the people."

Jinnō Shōtōki is written in a mixed Japanese-Chinese style. This is neither the rigid classical Chinese of the Nihon Shoki nor the flowing Japanese of The Tale of Genji, but a style unique to the medieval period. This choice indicates that the work was intended not only for scholars but for a broad readership including literate warriors and the young emperor.

The structure is divided into two main parts. The first, "The Age of Gods," covers from the creation of heaven and earth to just before Emperor Jimmu, explaining Japan's origins and the mythology that establishes Amaterasu as the progenitor of the imperial line. The second, "Human Sovereigns," describes the reigns from the first Emperor Jimmu to Emperor Go-Murakami (the 97th), examining the circumstances of each accession, political achievements, and the course of succession.

Chikafusa's originality lies in emphasizing "why things happened" over the mere enumeration of "what happened." This is not simply a chronicle but a work deserving to be called a philosophy of history.

The influence of Jinnō Shōtōki grew far larger in later eras than during the Northern and Southern Courts period itself. From the Edo period onward, this work played a decisive role in shaping Japanese nationalism.

In the early Edo period, the Dai Nihonshi (Great History of Japan), whose compilation was initiated by Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Lord of Mito, strongly inherited the historical view of Jinnō Shōtōki.⁶The "revere the emperor" ideology of Mito Learning developed with Chikafusa's "legitimacy theory" as its theoretical pillar.

Scholars of the mid-Edo period were also greatly influenced. Yamaga Sokō argued in his Chūchō Jijitsu that Japan was the "Central Kingdom" (the center of the world); this Japan-centered historical view was a Confucian development of the "Divine Nation" ideology in Jinnō Shōtōki. The rationalist historian Arai Hakuseki also referred to Chikafusa's descriptions when discussing the merits and faults of warrior rule.⁷

The late Edo bestseller Nihon Gaishi by Rai San'yō, a comprehensive history of the rise and fall of warrior houses, was underpinned by the "theory of righteous cause" inherited from Jinnō Shōtōki. While acknowledging warrior hegemony, San'yō never wavered from the position that ultimate legitimacy always resided with the emperor.

Notably, Rai Mikisaburō, San'yō's son, was involved in proofreading Nihon Gaishi after his father's death. He was a loyalist activist executed in the Ansei Purge of the late Edo period.⁸

Chikafusa's message—"return to the legitimate form that should be"—became the most powerful weapon for late Edo loyalists seeking to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and realize direct imperial rule. After the Meiji Restoration, the Southern Court legitimacy theory became the state-sanctioned historical view, with this work positioned as its theoretical foundation.

The wish Kitabatake Chikafusa entrusted to Jinnō Shōtōki—the unification of Japan under the Southern Court and Emperor Go-Murakami's return to Kyoto—was never achieved militarily. The Southern Court declined and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Court. In that sense, Chikafusa's political and military struggle ended in defeat.

Yet from the perspective of intellectual history, Chikafusa was the ultimate victor. The narrative he constructed—"unbroken imperial line," "divine nation," "legitimate succession"—survived across the centuries, captivated Tokugawa-era intellectuals, and ultimately became the driving force that moved real history in the form of the Meiji Restoration.

The fact that a book written by history's loser overturned the victor's history centuries later is a rare historical example of how powerful the pen can be against the sword.

The significance of reading Jinnō Shōtōki today lies not merely in learning the facts of the Northern and Southern Courts period. It is to relive how a nation or group in crisis redefines its identity and reinterprets its past (history) to forge its future. Kitabatake Chikafusa's lonely siege ended, but the questions he posed—"What is legitimacy?" "What is a nation?"—continue to resonate in different forms in our modern world.