What is Japanese Mythology?

There are so many mythologies around the world — Greek, Norse, Indian, and more.

Japanese mythology is one of them.It’s been passed down by word of mouth since long before written history began. Sometimes, even when a country disappears, its myths remain to tell us what life was like back then.In many places, mythology exists apart from a nation’s recorded history.

But Japan is a little different — it actually has an official collection of myths, compiled by the government long ago.That’s the Kojiki, Japan’s oldest historical record, completed in 712 CE.

It has three volumes: the first tells the myths, and the rest are about people.Just like the myths of other cultures, the Kojiki is full of stories about deities — funny, powerful, and sometimes surprisingly human. It’s a lot of fun to read!

The Kojiki was written in Japanese, for people living in Japan.Around the same time, another book called the Nihon Shoki was also compiled. This one was meant for readers outside Japan. It was written in classical Chinese — which was the common written language across East Asia back then — and it has thirty volumes in total. The Nihon Shoki includes many of the same myths as the Kojiki, but the way it’s written is different.

The Kojiki tells the stories like a narrative, while the Nihon Shoki reads more like a historical record, showing different versions and viewpoints of each event.

So, in short:
–Kojiki: written in Japanese, for people in Japan
–Nihon Shoki: written in classical Chinese, for readers abroad

Sorry if it’s a bit hard to read. I wrote it quickly, so let me add some clarification. ↓

Actually, there was an even older historical record before the Kojiki,
but for various reasons, it was lost in a fire.

Japan has been around since ancient times.
But it’s so old that no one knows the exact date it was founded. Even today, experts still disagree about when Japan actually began.

According to the Nihon Shoki, there’s a theory that Japan was founded on the day when the first emperor took the throne.
If that’s true, Japan has been “Japan” since 660 BCE — which means it’s been around for over 2,600 years!

Some people believe Japan existed even before that, while others think the real founding must have happened much later.
Either way, Japan’s history goes back so far that it’s honestly impossible to know exactly when it began.

The stories of the deities that were passed down from those ancient, almost mysterious times are collected in the first volume of the Kojiki.Even when it was compiled in 712 CE, the book was already called Kojiki — which literally means “Record of Ancient Matters.”

It seems that the deities of Japanese mythology were active around the purple section of the timeline.

Some people who are familiar with Japan might have thought that these myths came from the Edo period (1603–1868). That era was full of unique figures like ninjas and samurai, and many Japanese people are still big fans of it today.
Because Japan was closed off from the rest of the world at the time, its own distinct culture flourished.

If you know Japan even better, you might also be familiar with Yōkai.
Yōkai are supernatural creatures and ghost stories passed down among ordinary people.They share some similarities with mythology, but they’re actually quite different.

We’ve talked a lot about the Kojiki so far, but in fact, not many Japanese people have actually read it.
Why? Because it’s not taught in schools.

Some people even say, “Kojiki? What’s that again?”On the other hand, there are also people who study Japanese mythology deeply—sometimes knowing even more than scholars!
Japanese mythology has inspired countless manga and anime.

So why not take a peek into its world yourself?

Japan has so many deities that you don’t need to remember them all!
Just read the manga and find your favorite one!