The oldest Japanese chronicle, compiled for the court in 712. Its myths describe the building of a great shrine for the god of Izumo, with pillars planted deep in the bedrock and roof finials reaching the plain of heaven.
The Kojiki records the myths and genealogies of the imperial house. In the episode in which the god of Izumo yields the land to the descendants of the sun goddess, he asks in return for a dwelling like theirs: its pillars thick and set firm in the rock below, its crossed finials raised high into the heavens. The phrase became a formula for the ideal shrine, and the unusually tall hall of Izumo Taisha has always been associated with it.
Excavations in 2000 at Izumo uncovered the bases of colossal pillars, each made of three cedar trunks bound together, dated to the thirteenth century: evidence that the medieval hall was indeed far taller than the present one of 1744.
The book, part by part
I The yielding of the land (kuni-yuzuri)
The god of Izumo asks for a shrine with pillars rooted in the bedrock and finials reaching heaven.