ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes the fact that the Shinto vision of a purely indigenous Japanese antiquity is a myth. In Shinto's vision of a pure past, ancient Japan has been imagined as a place of stability and unity. Such a view is, however, hardly in line even with the selected classical sources that Shinto thinkers have relied upon—the two earliest court chronicles, Kojiki and Nihon shoki. The court cult of kami and the myths about the Kami age have often been isolated from the religious landscape and presented as the indigenous roots of Shinto. The most famous kami of all, and the undisputed star of kami myth, is the sun-goddess and imperial ancestor, Amaterasu. From medieval times onward, Shinto was largely construed around the cult of Amaterasu and her shrine in Ise. A closer look at Amaterasu's ancient roots allows us to gauge the degree to which ancient religion "lived on" in later Shinto.
