日本神話の起源を探る一年A Year Investigating the Origins of Japanese Myth

I have continued my investigative journey throughout this year while simultaneously handling a multitude of themes. However, the axis upon which I placed the greatest weight was the inquiry into origins. How precisely were the Japanese mythologies recorded in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki born?

The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are often spoken of in a single breath, yet their fundamental ideological backgrounds are entirely distinct. While their contents may appear similar, their architectural techniques of composition differ radically. This is not a matter of superiority or inferiority. It signifies rather that in Japan these two oldest extant ideologies have intermingled and altered their intensity with each passing era. Furthermore, while resting upon the foundation of these two texts, there exist the Fudoki as compilations of ancient local oral traditions produced in the same epoch and the Sendai Kuji Hongi which conveys traditions predating even the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, alongside countless other texts that chronicle the ancient world.

Consequently, there is likely no single correct view. I have come to feel that the only valid art is the technique of integrating these texts with multifaceted considerations across archaeology, history, and folklore under one's own volition, while physically visiting the sites and patiently deciphering the land itself. Now that Artificial Intelligence has permeated the social fabric to this extent, nothing but primary information holds any weight.

Thus, on this final day of 2025, I had initially conceived yesterday to narrow down the theme to a fragment of this vastness and present it as a photo essay. I had even begun to write this morning. However, I altered the composition. With gratitude to the readers who have followed my words throughout this year, I decided to lay bare the entire process exclusively for my paid subscribers, however fragmentary the disclosure may be. Consequently, this text has grown voluminous. Yet it is my hope that you will traverse it slowly while accompanied by 56 photographs curated from the more than 7,000 images captured at the sites I visited during my inquiries this year. To me, travel is inquiry, and inquiry is travel. I certainly peruse literature, yet I treat it merely as a reference and place little faith in it. Rather, I place my utmost trust in what I see with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, and standing upon that very ground sense with my own heart.

Looking back, the year began in Tokyo. My initial investigation focused on the ancient spiritual boundaries called kekkai that once formed the city known as Edo. The modern urban center of Tokyo has ignored the spirit of Edo's urban planning and destroyed it with a posture that prioritizes development above all else. This concerns the flow of Qi within the city. Edo was constructed on the premise of circulating this flow of Qi smoothly. Current Tokyo has undergone a complete transfiguration. Because the interests of Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko and the construction conglomerates are tightly interlocked, unnecessary conceptual skyscrapers and condominiums continue to proliferate in chaotic succession. Yet even with this relentless stance on development, there exist multiple taboo locations in Tokyo where the hand of development must absolutely never intervene. These are the kekkai of ancient Edo, and to develop these grounds is to invite inevitable and great calamity. Regarding this, the novel Teito Monogatari by Aramata Hiroshi is fascinating. It depicts the struggle surrounding these barriers in Tokyo from the late Meiji to the early Showa era. As a lover of cinema, I learned much from the work of the deeply respected director Jissoji Akio who adapted this narrative to film.

From there, I departed for the old towns of Onomichi and Tomonoura in Fukuyama (Hiroshima Prefecture) facing the Seto Inland Sea in a region once known as Bingo Province. My plan was to combine investigations into the traditional techniques of Bingo-omote (tatami) and the techniques of Noh theater. However, upon conversing with a researcher of Bingo-omote, I perceived a distinct lack of passion in his bearing. I immediately dissolved the project and withdrew.

With my schedule unexpectedly cleared, I traveled to a remote island in the Seto Inland Sea, the homeland of my late grandmother, to visit surviving relatives and listen to the folklore of the land.

Returning to Honshu, I proceeded to an old castle town in the mountainous region of Okayama Prefecture formerly known as Bitchu Province. There I investigated a figure named Yamada Hokoku (1805–1877), a Confucian scholar who saved the Bitchu Matsuyama Domain from extreme financial ruin in the late Edo period. I visited the site to hear directly from his descendants.

I then crossed over to the Sea of Japan side and entered the San'in region along the coasts of Tottori and Shimane Prefectures. I conducted an independent inquiry into what exactly transpired during the transition from the Yayoi period to the Kofun period as a critical juncture in ancient Japanese history.

This was an exploration to seek the true form of the god Okuninushi [大国主大神] as the central deity of Izumo Taisha who unified the powerful faction known as Izumo Province in mythology. While chasing the shadow of Izumo before it became a giant, I visited the location retaining the legend of the tomb of Yakamihime [八上比売, hime means princess] of Inaba Province (present-day Tottori Prefecture) who formed a marital alliance with Onamuchi as the divine name of the god before he claimed the kingly title of Okuninushi. When I spoke to the locals, they shared an astonishing oral tradition. Yakamihime was a deity from overseas [渡来神] who led a tribe called the "Yakami Tribe [八上族]" and eventually settled in this land. I was guided to an unknown tomb deep in the mountains, where I offered prayers. At that moment, I became convinced that without mastering the perspective of the immigrant deity, the form of ancient Japan remains invisible.

I left San'in briefly, only to return to investigate this perspective of migration. I visited western Shimane Prefecture formerly known as Iwami Province. My paternal grandparents hailed from a fishing village and a hot spring district in this Iwami Province. On the fishing village side, despite being a small plot of land, the place names bear the names of gods appearing in mythology as a rarity, and countless traces and legends of immigrant gods remain. I learned that a relative of mine had passed away mid-journey while spending his life investigating the local history of this land. Speaking with associates who knew him and members of the local history society he founded, I discovered that he like me had clarified through his own investigations a strong conviction that the Japanese are not a mono-ethnic people. Suddenly, I felt as though his unfulfilled intent had been passed to me.

From there, I conducted an intensive survey of the coastal areas of Izumo and Tottori.

I returned to continue researching the history of the Bitchu Matsuyama Domain, then traversed the mountainous region vertically and crossed the sea to enter Shikoku. To uncover the full picture of Shikoku which remains largely undefined despite the possibility that it was the central hub of ancient Japan, I visited countless ruins, tumuli, and shrines across Kagawa and Tokushima Prefectures. I realized that elucidating the enigma of Tokushima anciently known as the Land of Awa is indispensable for understanding why the Emperor emerged in Kansai (Osaka/Nara).

Next, I headed to the coastal area of Fukui Prefecture on the Sea of Japan side. In archaeology, radiocarbon dating has generally been used as a chronological measurement technique. While revolutionary, this technology has been viewed as problematic due to the wide margin of error in its estimated dates. It allows for a certain degree of conjecture but possesses the limitation of inexactness. However, an investigation that began in this land for an entirely different purpose has overturned the limits of archaeological methods and become the driving force for significantly rectifying the dating of the Jomon period. This is the world's only "Varves" collected at the Mikata Five Lakes in the Wakasa region of Fukui Prefecture.

Varves are striped geological layers formed by the alternate accumulation of different seasonal substances at the bottom of a lake each year. Astoundingly, the varves collected from the Mikata Five Lakes span 70,000 years. Because varves allow us to know in detail what occurred in ancient Japan year by year while simultaneously revealing global phenomena, the Mikata Five Lakes have come to be regarded as the sole location in the world for understanding earth's history. I spoke with researchers of these varves and walked through the museum and learned various things. I felt the reality that the dating of the Jomon period has shifted significantly from convention. I sensed the possibility of viewing the Jomon period investigations I have independently conducted in northern Tohoku from this composite angle, and I have set this as a theme for next year and beyond.

Subsequently, I began an investigation incorporating the perspective of folklore studies. Until now, I personally did not place weight on Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962) as the founder and absolute existence of folklore studies. Rather than that, I have questioned Yanagita's perspective which discusses Japan monolithically and have inclined toward the pluralistic folklore studies established by Orikuchi Shinobu (1887–1953) and Tsuboi Hirofumi (1929–1988) who patiently continued field investigations. However, I felt that a new viewpoint was necessary to further deepen the true image of Japan. Here, my thoughts intersected with the heterodox folklorist Tanigawa Kenichi (1921–2013). Reading Tanigawa's works extensively, I realized painfully that I must investigate the "true image of Japan seen from the sea" which Tanigawa prioritized above all. Thus, I crossed from Kobe to Shikoku by boat and began by evoking what the ancient landscape might have looked like. Once in Shikoku, I moved along the coast to search for the form of maritime tribes. Here, I became convinced of the correctness of Tanigawa's perspective which proposed that the Kuroshio Current is involved in the prototype of Japanese culture. I visited Kainan City in Tokushima Prefecture in southern Shikoku as a place Tanigawa also prioritized, and while investigating the ancient forces leading the marine tribes, I heard a certain story.

There are various types of ancient burial mounds (Kofun [古墳]) in Japan, but the type considered by archaeologists to be the tombs of influential figures related to Imperial history is the keyhole-shaped tumulus (Zenpo Koenfun [前方後円墳]). However, because not a single keyhole-shaped tumulus had ever been discovered in the southern Tokushima area, Tanigawa's perspective of deciphering Japanese history from the Kuroshio Current had not garnered attention in academia. Yet in September 2024, a previously undiscovered keyhole-shaped tumulus was found in the mountains of Kainan City in southern Tokushima. I learned of this in Kainan, but simultaneously heard that it might be destroyed by a highway planning project. I walked through the mountains without a map, found its form, and photographed it. Crossing from Shikoku to Wakayama by boat, I understood that as Tanigawa asserted the true image of Japan remains unseen unless one holds the viewpoint of the sea.

Setting my theme to the movements of ancient marine tribes, I canceled my scheduled comprehensive survey of Hokkaido and northern Tohoku. Instead, to investigate the form of Kyushu as a reception point for immigrant tribes crossing the sea from the continent and the Korean Peninsula in ancient Japan, I entered Kyushu and spent a month surveying the entire region. There I acquired a multifaceted perspective of the sea and became convinced that culture moves through the traffic between sea and river. Deep in thought, I felt I must pay attention to the gigantic Chikugo River. First, I investigated how the origins of the faith of Usa Jingu were generated in the coastal areas of eastern Kyushu. Usa Jingu is one of Japan's oldest shrines and is located in Oita Prefecture.

Navigating the traditions of the Kunisaki Peninsula near Usa Jingu, and heading south along the coast of eastern Kyushu from Saganoseki to Saiki where sea goddesses are worshipped, I conducted investigations into the important ancient forces that bundled the marine tribes of Japan. At this time, while it is likely fact that the main route of migration in Kyushu was the northern belt, I harbored a suspicion that there must have been other major routes. Intuition struck me that perhaps there was an advancement route that circled the west side and entered inland from the Ariake Sea. This traffic between the Ariake Sea and eastern Kyushu is blocked by steep mountains, but I understood that the Chikugo River traverses this. I hypothesized a movement of "Ariake Sea / Chikugo River / Eastern Kyushu (Usa, Kunisaki Peninsula, Saiki) / Shikoku." I traced the entire length of the Chikugo River from the Oita side while investigating faiths, and finally reached the Ariake Sea where the river flows out. Simultaneously, I surveyed the area around the Yoshinogari Ruins as a massive settlement and the most important site of the Yayoi period located near the basin. I grasped a sensation that seemed to call out to the movements of the marine tribes.

From there I entered Yamaga City in the mountainous region of Kumamoto Prefecture which holds mysterious traditions and faiths. I understood that the ancient force that bored holes in cliffs deep in the mountains to create tombs was not a tribe residing in the mountains but actually a marine tribe. From there I investigated the reality of the invisible marine tribes that expanded their power into the mountains via rivers.

I then emerged again in eastern Kyushu and headed south along the coast. To elucidate the myth of "Umisachi Yamasachi [海佐知山佐知]" which symbolizes a tribe holding power in the sea warring with a tribe holding power in the mountains and eventually transferring hegemony to the mountain forces, I moved around Miyazaki and Kagoshima and became intimately acquainted with why the traces of marine tribes vanished in Japan.

Upon concluding the survey of the entire Kyushu region, I headed to the Hokuriku region to view an exhibition of Hasegawa Tohaku as a painter of the Edo period, held as a prayer for the reconstruction of the Noto Peninsula which suffered a devastating earthquake on January 1, 2024. Hasegawa Tohaku was a native of Noto and is the painter I revere above all others. I have always contemplated the interior landscape of the soul that birthed his ineffable paintings. Simultaneously, I resolved to observe the extent of the State's capacity to cope with natural disasters as threats unavoidable in Japan. Drawing upon the somatic knowledge I have independently gathered regarding the state of reconstruction following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, I conducted a similar survey in Noto. With the specific intent of deepening the perspective on how faith is eroded by cataclysm, I circumnavigated the Noto Peninsula which has not yet recovered and witnessed the scars of the quake that still mark the entirety of the land. In particular, I investigated an ancient princess in the region of Suzu [珠洲] at the northernmost tip of the Noto Peninsula who holds a deep connection to Okuninushi of Izumo.

Furthermore, to burnish the lens of pluralistic folklore studies, I traversed Toyama, Nagano, Niigata, and Fukushima and understood from the depths of my being that the form of Japan and the Japanese people is not monolithic.

In parallel, I pursued the shadow of the princess whom Okuninushi of Izumo took to wife. This is the deity known as Nunakawahime [沼河比売] enshrined in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture. She is a pivotal divinity who built an era in ancient Japan before Izumo seized hegemony. Her roots lie in the Jomon period. Leveraging the techniques for gathering and processing jade which in Japan is produced only in this land, she orchestrated rituals as a Queen who commanded the power of jade. Archaeologically speaking, the jade from the territory ruled by Nunakawahime has been discovered across the entirety of Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

Thus returning to Osaka, and premised on the knowledge understood this year, I spent a month traversing the length and breadth of Osaka to sharpen the inquiry. Why did ancient Imperial history unfold in the Osaka-Yamato axis? Through this, I was able to obtain a singular suggestion regarding how the Emperor became the Emperor.

I have written this rapidly, so there are many things omitted, but these were the main themes around this area this year. I feel that the perspectives I have cultivated over several years have been further sharpened. As the saying goes, "mystery calls forth mystery." The more it seems I have elucidated, the more I seem to have entered a vast and boundless world of the unknown. There is likely no end, and likely no answer.

The year 2026 which begins tomorrow, I intend to focus once again on northern Tohoku as a place I visit almost every year but could not visit this year. At the same time, I intend to shift my axis toward cultural consideration and investigation.

In closing, I wavered right and left throughout this year with nothing fixed, yet I continued to write articles simply to grasp something. Around mid-November, there was a moment when it became clear what I was trying to grasp by writing. It was not to "convey" to an unspecified majority but to create a place to "contemplate" together with a limited readership, and therein to birth not "empathy" but "resonance."

In the midst of this, to the readers who subscribed early on to the articles written by a nameless individual and continued to read, I express my deep gratitude once again. It goes without saying that your existence was the driving force that allowed me to write through this year.

Quietly welcoming the final day of this year in Japan, I head toward the future known as 2026 a step ahead of my readers in the West.

From Japan, with gratitude and respect to all my readers.