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The Kojiki — Japan's oldest book, written in 712 — describes a single mythological journey across five regions of the archipelago. We are publishing one volume per region, each pairing the original myths with the actual sites where they happened. Read them in any order.
Most introductions to Japanese mythology read the gods as a list. The Kojiki itself reads them as a journey — a single arc that begins in the south, fights through the west, descends in the southwest, settles in the center, and ends in the east, where the first emperor is crowned. The five volumes follow that arc.
The series begins where the Kojiki begins: with two gods, a heavenly spear, and the first drop of seawater that congeals into Onogoro Island. Awaji is the threshold between heaven and earth, the southern doorway to the archipelago. Read first, or last, but at some point you must pass through here.
Six of the eleven foundational myths happen in Izumo: Susanoo's banishment, the eight-headed dragon, the white hare of Inaba, Okuninushi's rule, the Land Transfer at Inasa Beach, and the founding of Izumo Taisha. The densest mythological region in Japan. If you only buy one volume, this is the one.
After the Land Transfer, the heavens send Ninigi — Amaterasu's grandson — down to rule the new earthly kingdom. The descent happens here, in the volcanic gorges of Kyushu, at a place where the sun goddess once hid in a cave and shut the world in darkness. The most cinematic region of the trail.
Three generations after the descent, the imperial line settles its sun goddess at Ise, in a shrine rebuilt every twenty years for over thirteen centuries. Ise is the spiritual fulcrum of the whole arc — the place where the cosmic order achieves its quiet, durable form.
The Kojiki ends with Jimmu, the first earthly emperor, marching east from Kyushu to found his capital in the Yamato basin. Asuka is where myth becomes history. The series ends here too, at the place where Japan stopped being a story and started being a country.
Read in any order. We recommend Izumo first — it is the densest, the most concrete, and the easiest to actually visit. But the arc is unbroken, and any volume opens onto the rest.
Get the printable Kojiki Story Map — a single chart of all the gods, myths, and places — plus weekly editorial dispatches connecting the myths to the places you can actually visit. Volume launch announcements arrive here first, with subscriber-only launch-week pricing.