Jinnō Shōtōki

Jinnō Shōtōki (神皇正統記, "Chronicles of the Authentic Lineages of the Divine Emperors") is a Japanese historical book written by Kitabatake Chikafusa.

[4]Chikafusa had been a careful student of the book Nihon Shoki (日本書紀, "The Chronicles of Japan"), and this background is reflected in the narrative structure of his Jinnō Shōtōki.

In Jinnō Shōtōki, the reign of each emperor from the mythological period to the enthronement of Go-Murakami is described, together with personal observations by Chikafusa based on his own political and ethical beliefs.

The chronicles thus serve as a context for Chikafusa to expound his views about appropriate conduct for Japanese sovereigns, and thereby attempt to justify the legitimacy of the Southern Court.

[7] Chikafusa contended that much about the Japanese form of government was demonstrably ideal, and that it is both appropriate and beneficial for the emperor and court nobles to rule and for the samurai and others to be led by them.

Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the Edo-period daimyō of the Mito Domain, valued Chikafusa's work highly, a view which he expressed in the Japanese chronicle Dai Nihonshi (大日本史): "History of Great Japan".

These pre-Meiji influences contributed to the development of the Kō Koku Shi Kan (皇国史観), a view of history in which Japan is regarded as a divine nation governed by emperors in a single family line from its beginning.