The Nihon Shoki stands at a crossroads between myth and history, and its value lies precisely in that liminal position. Compiled at the imperial court to legitimize the Yamato line and present a continuous sacred lineage, it consciously adopts the form of Chinese dynastic histories while weaving in Shinto cosmology. Its opening accounts of the age of the gods, creation myths, and divine genealogies are not historically reliable in a modern sense, yet they reveal how the early state envisioned the relationship between the kami, the land, and imperial authority. These mythic narratives illuminate the religious imagination and political aspirations of the compilers, and thus serve as a mirror of early court ideology rather than a record of literal events.

As the narrative moves from the mythological age into the era of early emperors, the text remains shaped by political needs. Genealogies that stretch imperial descent back into the divine realm, and reign lengths that appear artificially extended, reflect a desire to present an ancient and unbroken imperial line. The further one moves back before roughly the 5th or 6th century, the more the material takes on a legendary character, with chronology and succession patterns that seem retrospectively constructed. In this sense, the Nihon Shoki functions as a carefully curated memory of origins, harmonizing diverse traditions into a single Yamato-centered story.

Yet the chronicle grows more historically grounded as it approaches the late Kofun, Asuka, and early Nara periods. For the 5th–7th centuries, its accounts of diplomatic missions, major reforms, court politics, and succession disputes can often be set alongside Chinese and Korean records or archaeological findings. Where such external evidence aligns with the Nihon Shoki, scholars tend to regard its testimony as broadly reliable, especially concerning foreign relations, large-scale conflicts, and administrative measures. Even then, the text retains a pro-Yamato bias, frequently downplaying rival clans or the role of Korean polities in state formation, and emphasizing unity where the reality was likely more fragmented.

For those drawn to spiritual inquiry, the Nihon Shoki may be read as a record of how a community sought to sacralize its past and embed political order within a cosmic framework. Its Shinto cosmology and mythic genealogies disclose the values, fears, and hopes of an emerging state that wished to see itself reflected in the heavens. As a historical source, it demands careful corroboration and a constant awareness of its ideological agenda; as a spiritual document, it offers a window into the way myth and power, devotion and memory, were braided together in early Japan. Used with discernment, it becomes less a simple chronicle of what happened and more a guide to how a people understood their place between gods and ancestors, earth and sky.