The entry for the second day of the fifth month of the year Wadō 6 (713) in Nihon Shoki records that reports containing the following items were commanded to be submitted from provinces of Japan:[1][2] These gebumi (解文, official documents to be submitted to a higher authority) about the situation in the province eventually came to be called fudoki (literally, “records of customs” or “gazetteers”).

This means that the compilation took place between 713 and 715, when the kokushi (国司, provincial governors) of Harima were Kose no Ōji (巨勢邑治), Ōishi no Ō (大石王), Ishikawa no Kimiko (石川君子), and the daisakan (大目, fourth in the official hierarchy, scribe) was Sasanami/Takaoka no Kawachi (楽浪河内/高岡河内).

In that sense, it contrasts with Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (常陸国風土記), which has more kanseki (漢籍, Classical Chinese) aspects.

On this basis, the kōri (郡, rural district, county) sections are divisible into three groups: (a) Kako (賀古), Inami (印南) and Minagi (美嚢) (Minō); (b) Shikama (飾磨), Kamusaki (神前), Taka (託賀) and Kamo (賀毛); and (c) Ihibo (揖保, Ibo), Sayo (讃容) and Shisawa (宍禾) (Shisō).

[citation needed] There is only one extant manuscript of Harima no Kuni Fudoki: the Sanjōnishikebon (三条西家本) scroll copied at the end of the Heian Period, which was in the collection of the Sanjōnishi family.

[10] There being no other copies, and because the existence of the Sanjōnishi family scroll was unknown for a long time, only parts of Harima no Kuni Fudoki were known as fragmenta cited in other works.

For example, the mountainous district called Taka Kōri self-evidently means, literally, “High District.” The place name Taka could possibly have been written with the graph (高) meaning "high", but the Wadō order specifies that place names should be expressed with two graphs.

[citation needed] The compilers of Harima no Kuni Fudoki complied quite consistently with the order to use pleasant graphs.

[17][18] From this entry it may be inferred that the practice of rendering place names with pleasant meanings had already been preferred for a long time, and therefore that the Wadō order was merely formalising an established custom.

This preference reflected superstitious belief in kotodama (言霊), the spirit of speech, a kind of magical thinking whereby the utterance of a word was thought to be sufficiently powerful to bring about or conjure up the thing spoken of.

[citation needed] People subjected to taxation tend to respond with circumspection, and the issue is avoided in the fudoki for other provinces.

[citation needed] Tanaka and Matsushita (1994) compared Fudoki's assessment with the yields of rice per tan in the relevant kōri/gun for 1885, which found that with few exceptions there was a fairly good correspondence between the two.

[citation needed] This method also showed a good correlation, and in the various sato in Sayo Kōri which were not explained previously, a higher grade was evident.

[citation needed] The origins of place names and local tales, myths and legends form the bulk of the text, as in the other fudoki, and that accords with the two items of the government order pertaining to the origins of the names of mountains, rivers, plains and grasslands, and the stories passed down by the elders.

[citation needed] The entries which record the origins of place names range from simple ones that say “because of x it came to be called y;” to those which are more narrative, specifying a time period, protagonists, and what they did; to those which link all such elements together.

On the other hand, kunitama (the spirit of the land) resided in the place name, and revelation of it to outsiders denoted surrender of local autonomy to external authorities.

The aims of the Nara government in recording place names were not only for pragmatic cadastral purposes, but also to consolidate ideological control over the newly-formed nation state.

[citation needed] Several of the deities are araburu kami (malevolent entities), particularly those that kill people by disrupting transportation or preventing them from settling in a particular place.

As in the case of deities, place name origins are said to be because while the king was on a royal progress he said something, dropped something, performed kunimi (land viewing), or went hunting.

Being nearer to the Kinai area, the Yamato polity had greater sway from earlier on in the southeast, whereas Harima’s autonomy persisted longer in the northwest.

[citation needed] These include passages about movements from other areas in Harima and from neighbouring provinces, and even from the Korean Peninsula.

[30] This is corroborated by the fact that most relics and archaeological sites relating to continental immigrants in Harima have been found along the Inland Sea coast centred on those two kōri.

[31] A recent dimension to the study of Harima no Kuni Fudoki in conjunction with archaeological evidence suggests that the seafaring ama communities based around Ōsaka Bay and the Inland Sea played an important role in the formation of the Yamato state.

The King grieved and said “We shall not eat the fish from this river.” From then on, the ayu (年魚, sweetfish) of this river were no longer served at the royal table.

He travelled all over the country, but when he reached Taka District, he said, "Everywhere else the sky was so low that I had to stoop to walk, but here it is high, so I can stretch my back straight.

[46] There is a similar tale about oracular sake being used to divine an unknown father of a child, Kamo no Wake Ikazuchi no mikoto, in Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki Itsubun.

Later on, Kusakabe no Muraji Omi, recognising the gravity of his crime (i.e., of absconding with the royal princes), cut loose their horses, burned all their belongings, and committed suicide.

Oke and Woke roamed the countryside incognito, until they entered into the service of Itomi (伊等尾), the headman of Shijimi Village.

[51][52] While they were staying in one of these palaces, they sought the hand in marriage of Nehime no mikoto, the daughter of Koma, the kuni no miyatsuko (official) of Harima no Kamo.

The two princes grieved deeply, and directed Odate to “construct a burial mound for her in a place where it gets both the morning and evening sunshine.