The Kojiki functions less as a legal code and more as the mythic ground on which modern Shinto stands. Its narratives give shape to the pantheon of kami, especially figures such as Amaterasu Ōmikami, Susanoo, and Ōkuninushi, whose stories inform how they are revered and understood in shrine worship. Major shrines like Ise Jingū and Izumo Taisha draw much of their religious identity and ritual focus from these accounts, so that the daily offerings and annual ceremonies unfold within a story-world first articulated in the text. Even when worshippers are not consciously thinking of the Kojiki, the way particular kami are approached, praised, and entreated is framed by the roles and attributes the text assigns them.

The Kojiki also undergirds the sacral character of the imperial institution and its associated rites. By tracing the imperial lineage back to Amaterasu, it provides a mythic genealogy that supports the emperor’s symbolic religious role. Ceremonies such as the Daijōsai and other court-related Shinto rites rest on this narrative of divine descent, even when the text itself is not explicitly cited. In this way, political authority, ritual performance, and sacred history are woven together into a single fabric, with the Kojiki serving as the foundational thread.

Equally significant is the way the Kojiki shapes Shinto understandings of purity, pollution, and the rhythms of ritual life. The myths of Izanagi and Izanami, with their vivid depictions of death-related defilement and subsequent purification, lie behind the emphasis on cleanliness, avoidance of death within shrine precincts, and the centrality of practices such as misogi and ōharai. Many matsuri and seasonal rites echo episodes from the text, whether in acts of purification, in agricultural and fertility celebrations, or in festivals that symbolically reenact the pacification and ordering of the land. Through these recurring patterns, the mythic past is continually re-entered and made present in communal practice.

Finally, the Kojiki continues to shape how Shinto understands itself as a tradition and how it is taught. Shinto priests study it as a core source for doctrine, ritual precedent, and theological reflection, and its stories are frequently retold in shrine pamphlets and explanations offered to visitors. From earlier uses that linked its narratives to ideas of national essence and unity under the emperor, to more recent roles as a cultural touchstone, the text has contributed to a shared sense of identity and continuity. Modern Shinto observances are not simply copied from its pages, yet the Kojiki quietly informs who is worshipped, how the sacred order of the world is imagined, and how the relationship between land, people, and kami is ritually expressed.