Shinto Texts
Just as Shinto has no single founder akin to the Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad, so it has no body of sacred scriptures on a parallel with the Tripitaka, Bible, or Quran. What it does have are historical accounts of the formation of the world and the coming of the kami to Japan, providing both an historical and spiritual basis for Shinto. The first and still the most important major accounts of Shinto cosmogony are the Kojiki, committed to writing in 712 C.E., and the Nihongi, compiled in 720. The Kojiki provide the oldest written record of the Imperial Family and the clans that created the Japanese nation, constituting the basis on which Japanese society is built. The Engi Shiki (Ceremonial Law of the Engi Period), written in 927, contains 27 Shinto rituals, laying down the ground rules for offerings. The absence of an elaborate Shinto canon of sacred writings is a direct reflection of the role of the shrine as the focal point of the religion, taking the place that written doctrine assumes in other traditions.
