Shinto Gobusho (five-volume apologia of Shinto) (神道五部書)

"Shinto Gobusho" was a foundational book of Ise Shinto (also known as Watarai Shinto - a school of Shinto thought established by priests of the Grand Shrine of Ise in the medieval period) and a collective term for the following five-volume apologia.

"Amaterasu isenisho kotaijingu gochinza shidai" (Gochinza shidai)
"Isenisho kotaijin gochinza denki" (Gochinza denki)
"Toyouke kotaijin gochinza honki" (Gochinza honki)
"Zo isenisho daijingu hokihonki" (Hokihonki)
"Yamatohime no mikoto seiki"

The colophon indicates that all of the above were completed before the Nara period, but in fact it is said that a Geku gikan (an official of the outer shrine), such as Yukitada WATARAI, wrote the books in the Kamakura period in view of ancient records handed down to Ise-jingu Shrine.

Details

In the study of history and Japanese literature, it is assumed that the Watarai clan, the Shinto priests of the outer Ise-jingu Shrine, wrote the books so as to raise the status of the outer shrine up to or higher than the Naiku (inner shrine - enshrined deity: Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess), insisting that its enshrined deity Toyoukebime was equivalent to Ame no Minakanushi no Kami (one of the gods in Japanese mythology) and Kuninotokotachi no mikoto and was the universal godhead superior to Amaterasu Omikami. Ise Shinto itself was based on the Shinponbutsujaku theory (Buddhist devas and types of Buddhas are other forms of Shinto deities), which criticized Honji-suijaku setsu (theory of original reality and manifested traces), but the theory of Shinto Gobusho, the fundamental book, is said to have been influenced by "Yamatokatsuragihozan-ki," the book of Shinto Thoughts established in the position of Buddhism, especially Shugendo (Japanese mountain asceticism/shamanism incorporating Shinto and Buddhist concepts).

[Original Japanese]