She believes that the stories of a communal past have political effects today; in the United States the naming of warships after former presidents is an example of the link between power and history. Myths, too, have the same affect despite speaking through symbolic language, and today struggle between scientists and creationists is an example of the politicization of two beliefs. Smart talked about religions in broad terms as “worldviews,” belief systems which contained their own histories and myths. Politics, the practice of power, is related to religion and other worldviews because government is merely an extension of society with all its values and ideals; from this perspective, the Enlightenment effort to separate religion and politics was the expression of competing ideologies, Christianity and rationalism. In Japan political leaders fused separate but compatible religions into a single worldview, Shinto, in order to prevent strife and civil war. The Kojiki represents the nations Izumo and Yamato are by their gods, the younger brother Susano and older sister Amateratsu. These texts are closely linked to political struggles, but they also transcend the realm of tangible power and are key texts in Japanese and Chinese religion.
Yasumaro wrote the Kojiki at the bequest of the Emperor, who wanted to correct the myths which were recorded in previous texts, saying,
“I hear that the Teiki (imperial chronicles) and the Honji (fundamental dicta) handed down by the various houses have come to differ from the truth and that many falsehoods have been added to them. If these errors are not remedied at this time, their meaning will be lost before many years have passed. This is the framework of the state, the great foundation of the imperial influence.
”This passage suggests that the Teiki and Honji were religious documents handed down by vassals who had previously been independent, and the effort to “correct” them is an attempt to change the subject religions in order to fit in with a new worldview which is more conducive to imperial rule. In facilitating political unification, however, the Kojiki asserts that all its peoples share common roots, and that there is an underlying national spirit beneath all the outer customs and rites. The account begins at the creation of the world and ends in the reign of the Emperor Woparida, a historical figure. This mixture of legend and fact is also expressed in the identity of the characters; the first figure we encounter is the high god Izanagi, who gives birth to the sun god Amatersau and the sea god Susano, among others. Izanagi then fades into the background and the myth focuses on his progeny; several chapters later the main character is Yamato-takeru, a warrior who is powerful but mortal. Yamato eventually dies of an illness. As legend melds into fact in the Kojiki the characters become less divine, so that the tale makes a connection between legend and history at all times; the people of each region are somehow related to a god.
The chapters in the Kojiki are often disjointed and there does not appear to be any overarching plot; the text is a compilation of myths rather than a unified, individual story. Characters appear and disappear without a trace
The exact status of the Japanese divinities, or kamis, is unclear, and they seem to be more powerful than men but not immortal. The character Wo-usu-no-mikoto, later christened Yamato-takeru-no-miko, for example, is a powerful figure who fights with various demons and monsters, but also dies from sickness and exhaustion after fighting a sacred white boar. Yamato seems to be identified with the Yamato Empire whose rulers ordered that the Kijoko be written, and his violence could be a representation of the state’s power. Yamato is more like a force of nature than a man as his motivations remain hidden, and he seems to kill for no reason. Even the emperor fears him after Yamato explains his brother’s absence, “Early in the morning when he went into the privy, I waited and captured him, grasped him and crushed him, then pulled off his limbs, and wrapping them in a straw mat, threw them away.This terrifies the emperor, who gives him a quest in order to get him out of the capital. Once he is on his own Yamato rampages across the country; armed with the sacred sword kusa-nagi he kills any and all who cross him. After losing an encounter with the white boar he dies from sickness and exhaustion, singing about his beautiful homeland. The great, chaotic Yamato’s place in the pantheon of Japanese gods is unclear and he might personify the strength and terror of the empire.
Two centuries later this idea of a common link among the various deities across Japan had been solidified, as demonstrated in this tenth century Shinto prayer which echoes the Kojiki; the kami Ame-no-ho-hi-no-mikoto came down to heaven to rule Izumo and finds it in disarray. The Kojiki refers to Izumo as the “central land of the reed plains,”
By the tenth century the gods of each local shrine were all related somehow and each had a place in a divine bureaucracy, indicating how Shinto had standardized Japanese religion. This religion went hand in hand with a powerful Heian empire and this prayer is dedicated to the health of the emperor; however Japan experienced many political changes in the years between the Kojiki and this text and some of the tenets of Shinto must have had some impact on Japanese culture. The compilation of myths in the seventh century created a worldview which resonated in a lasting way with societies across Japan
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