Myths from the Bungo Fudoki

The Bungo-no-Kuni Fudoki is a gazetteer of the province of Bungo, most of modern Ōita Prefecture, in the early eighth century. Although it survives in more than fragments quoted elsewhere, the surviving text is very short, and makes surprisingly few explicit references to kami or jinja, even given its brevity. This essay recounts the myths from the text that are of most interest in a Shinto context.

Torii image © Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.