The Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters
Japanese Creation Myths, Shinto Genealogy, and the Sacred Origins of Imperial JapanBy Anonymous
Length1h 30m
About this audiobook
The Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters, completed in 712, is Japan's earliest extant literary work and a foundational text of its mythic, religious, and political imagination. It recounts the creation of the islands, the genealogy of the gods, the deeds of heroic and tragic sovereigns, and the descent of the imperial line from the sun goddess Amaterasu. Combining cosmogony, genealogy, ritual tradition, song, legend, and court chronicle, it moves between archaic poetic diction and concise prose narrative. Its arrangement of oral materials into a sacred history gives the work both the fluidity of folklore and the ideological force of dynastic historiography, while its episodes preserve distinctive traces of early Japanese conceptions of kinship, purity, sovereignty, and human mortality. Although conventionally attributed to no single author, the Kojiki emerged from the early eighth-century imperial court. It was compiled under the direction of Emperor Temmu and recorded by Ō no Yasumaro from traditions associated with the reciter Hieda no Are. Its formation reflects a period in which the court sought to consolidate political authority, preserve inherited narratives, and articulate Japan's cultural identity amid the influence of continental institutions and writing. The text therefore stands at the intersection of oral memory, statecraft, and the developing literary use of Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. Readers interested in mythology, comparative religion, folklore, political theology, or the origins of Japanese literature will find the Kojiki indispensable. Its strange, vivid stories reward imaginative reading, while its layered structure invites sustained scholarly interpretation. This edition belongs on the shelf of anyone seeking to understand how a culture transforms ancestral memory into literature, religious tradition, and a legitimizing account of national origins.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (4.9K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing, StoryGraph
GenreSpirituality and Religion
Length1 hr 30 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 8, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1My Secret Life Volumes I. to III. An anonymous masterpiece of erotica, sex & pornography
2Titlepage
3Text
Buddhist ScripturesAnonymous3h4.0 (2K)$1.99 · $0.00
I CHING (The Book of Changes)Anonymous16h 33m4.4 (31.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lazarillo de Tormes: BiographyAnonymous2h 32m3.9 (40.2K)$1.99 · $0.00
Serbian Folk-loreAnonymous8h 27m$1.99 · $0.00
American Cookery: Thanksgiving Menus & Classic RecipesAnonymous1h 37m$1.99 · $0.00
1 ClementAnonymous1h 46m$1.99 · $0.00
My Secret Life: The Complete Unabridged Volumes I. to III.Anonymous26h 15m$1.99 · $0.00
The Story of Burnt NjalAnonymous13h 43m$1.99 · $0.00
The Story of Burnt NjalAnonymous15h 1m$1.99 · $0.00
Legends of Norseland (Illustrated Edition)Anonymous2h 40m$1.99 · $0.00
The Song of the NibelungsAnonymous12h 44m4.0 (11.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Book of JasherAnonymous16h 13m4.5 (743)$1.99 · $0.00
Malay AnnalsAnonymous7h 55m$1.99 · $0.00
A Night in a Moorish HaremAnonymous3h 12m$1.99 · $0.00
BeowulfAnonymous5h 55m$1.99 · $0.00
The Vegetable Garden: What, When, and How to PlantAnonymous6h 44m$1.99 · $0.00
Kalevala: The Epic Poem of FinlandAnonymous15h 31m4.2 (12.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
My Secret Life Volumes I. to III. An anonymous masterpiece of erotica, sex & pornographyAnonymous26h 14m3.3 (935)$1.99 · $0.00
Hildebrand: The Days of Queen ElizabethAnonymous17h 16m$1.99 · $0.00
True Politeness: A Hand-book of Etiquette for LadiesAnonymous1h 9m$1.99 · $0.00
The Secret of the RosaryLouis de Montfort6h 1m4.7 (16K)$2 · $0.00
The Holy Qur-an: Text, Translation and CommentaryAbdullah Yusuf Ali22h 16m4.7 (133K)$1 · $0.00
All of Grace (Annotated)Charles Spurgeon5h 1m4.7 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Steps to ChristEllen G. White3h 12m4.7 (13.8K)$2 · $0.00
The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Annotated)Joseph Smith13h 57m4.7 (575)$2 · $0.00
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God & Other Sermons (Annotated)Jonathan Edwards7h 51m4.7 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
Swayam Ki AwaazPrem Rawat8h 34m4.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
Behind the BadgeAdam Davis10h 18m4.7 (2.7K)$10 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
Praying GraceDavid A. Holland3h 2m4.7 (658)$10 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Christ KeyChad Bird, Chad Bird7h 33m4.7 (592)$17.40 · $0.00
He and IGabrielle Bossis10h 12m4.7 (554)$17 · $0.00
Your Body Already KnowsNidhi Pandya Bhanshali9h 7m4.7 (360)$16 · $0.00
The Complete WorksFlorence Scovel Shinn7h 59m4.6 (6.6K)$2 · $0.00
Driven by EternityJohn Bevere3h 50m4.6 (3.2K)$10 · $0.00
Spiritual AnatomyDaaji Kamlesh D. Patel9h 47m4.7 (319)$29 · $0.00
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English ProseAnonymous8h 1m4.7 (1.9K)$2 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m4.6 (4.9K)$10 · $0.00
You may also like
The Younger EddaSnorri Sturluson4h 16m4.2 (21.6K)Free
The Kojiki, or Records of Ancient MattersAnonymous1h 20m4.0 (6.1K)$2 · $0.00
A Treasury of Scottish Mythical CreaturesTheresa Breslin3h 13m4.5 (776)$12 · $0.00
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome E. M. Berens11h 1m3.9 (3.4K)Free
Myths of the Norsemen (Illustrated Edition)Hélène Adeline Guerber11h 51m4.2 (4.6K)$1 · $0.00
Just so storiesRudyard Kipling3h 10m4.2 (66.5K)$2.30 · $0.00
Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of IrelandLady Wilde17h 3m4.2 (771)$2 · $0.00
MetamorphosesOvid15h 18m4.3 (91.6K)$25
Mother West Wind "How" StoriesThornton W. Burgess1h 47m4.4 (321)$1 · $0.00
Japanese Fairy TalesYei Theodora Ozaki6h 43m4.0 (8K)$23
The Fairy MythologyThomas Keightley21h 35m4.1 (956)$2 · $0.00
Russian Fairy Tales from the Skazki of PolevoiP. Polevoi6h 22m4.2 (4.9K)$1 · $0.00
Indian Fairy TalesVarious11h 2m3.7 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Indian Fairy Book: From the Original LegendsCornelius Mathews8h 21m3.6 (46)$1 · $0.00
British GoblinsWirt Sikes3h 57m3.9 (352)$1.20 · $0.00
More Australian legendary talesK. Langloh Parker2h 27m$1 · $0.00
Iroquois MythologyErminnie A. Smith4h 11m4.1 (18)$1.99 · $0.00
Legends Of MauiW. D. Westervelt4h 18m4.0 (132)$2.30 · $0.00
The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (Annotated)W. Warde Fowler17h 21m4.6 (18)$1.99 · $0.00
Folk-Lore and Legends: North American IndianAnonymous3h 45m3.9 (19)$2 · $0.00