page_title: Fudoki
section_title: Kofudoki
hierarchical_section_title: Fudoki / Kofudoki
caption_attribution_description: English: Fudoki of Harima Province (播磨国風土記, Harima no kuni fudoki). Transcription of an ancient record of culture and geography from the early Nara period; oldest extant fudoki manuscript. One handscroll, ink on paper. Located at Tenri University Library (天理大学附属天理図書館, Tenri daigaku fuzoku Tenri toshokan), Tenri, Nara.
context_page_description: Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and folklore. Fudoki manuscripts also document local myths, rituals, and poems that are not mentioned in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki chronicles, which are the most important literature of the ancient national mythology and history. In the course of national unification, the imperial court enacted a series of criminal and administrative codes called ritsuryō and surveyed the provinces established by such codes to exert greater control over them.
context_section_description: In the narrower sense, Fudoki refer to the oldest records written in the Nara period, later called Kofudoki (古風土記) (Old-Fudoki). Compilation of Kofudoki began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period. Following the Taika Reform in 646 and the Code of Taihō enacted in 701, there was need to centralize and solidify the power of the imperial court. This included accounting for lands under its control. According to the Shoku Nihongi, Empress Genmei issued a decree in 713 ordering each provincial government (ja:国衙, kokuga) to collect and report the following information:
  Names of districts and townships
  Natural resources and living things
  Land fertility
  Etymology of names for geographic features, such as mountains, plains, and rivers
  Myths, legends, and folktales told orally by old people
caption: A scroll of the oldest extant Fudoki from Harima Province  preserved at Tenri Central Library in Tenri, Nara
exif: {}