Fudoki
Also known as: Records of Wind and Earth, Provincial Fudoki, Izumo Fudoki, Harima Fudoki, Hitachi Fudoki, Bungo Fudoki, Hizen Fudoki
Imperial-era provincial gazetteers recording geography, resources, and local traditions. Best preserved in the Izumo and Hitachi texts, Fudoki preserve place-name etymologies and regional myths that complement but sometimes diverge from Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.
Description
The Fudoki are early eighth-century provincial gazetteers produced by order of the central court to survey the archipelago’s lands and communities. Each dossier catalogs the province’s terrain, fauna and flora, natural resources, administrative divisions, shrine sites, and—distinctively—etiological narratives explaining local place names. While ostensibly bureaucratic, the records embed rich mythic strata: kami encounters, foundation tales, divine marriages, land-making feats, and cult origins localized to specific mountains, rivers, and coasts. The best-preserved examples are the Izumo no Kuni Fudoki (nearly complete) and Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (substantial), with others like Harima, Bungo, and Hizen surviving in part. Together they offer a granular map of sacred geography and regional memory during the Nara period.
Historiography
Commissioned in 713, the Fudoki corpus was compiled by provincial officials drawing on local informants and shrine traditions; most dossiers were later lost. The Izumo and Hitachi texts survive in near-complete or substantial medieval manuscript lineages, while Harima, Bungo, and Hizen persist as excerpts and fragments cited in later anthologies and scholia. Edo-period kokugaku scholars mined the Fudoki to reconstruct regional cults and archaic language, and modern philology compares their variants with Kojiki and Nihon Shoki to trace local mythic redactions and administrative overlay.
Date Notes
Compiled under the 713 CE edict of Empress Genmei requiring each province to submit a gazetteer of place-name etymologies, products, and traditions.
Major Characters
- Okuninushi
- Susanoo
- Suseri-hime
- Amaterasu
Myths
- Local Land-Birth Myths of the Kami
- Deity Land-Claims and Placenames
- Miracles of Regional Shrines
Facts
- Ordered in 713 CE to standardize provincial reports on geography, resources, and place-name etymologies.
- Preserves local myths and shrine traditions not fully recorded in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.
- Izumo no Kuni Fudoki survives almost complete; Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki is substantial; others are fragmentary.
- Compilers were provincial officials drawing on local elders, shrine priests, and administrative records.
- Provides one of the earliest systematic surveys of Japan’s sacred geography.
- Includes numerous etiological narratives explaining toponyms via divine acts or taboos.
- Reflects Nara-period governance, land division, and the integration of local cults into state ritual.
- Frequently cites natural products and agricultural strengths alongside mythic notes.
- Later scholars used Fudoki to reconstruct regional dialect, archaic vocabulary, and cult networks.
- Many provincial Fudoki were lost; surviving texts come through medieval manuscript copies and excerpts.