Engishiki: Procedures of the Engi Era

The Engishiki is a tenth century compilation of Japanese court and Shinto ritual procedures and regulations, and this translation, published through Sophia University in Tokyo by the scholar Felicia Gressitt Bock, renders the text's religious and ceremonial sections into English with scholarly notes. As a primary source it is a foundational document for understanding formal early Heian period Shinto ritual practice as officially codified by the imperial court, distinct from later popular or sectarian Shinto developments. Its limit is that it records the specific official court ritual system of its own period, so it should not be read as describing all forms of Shinto practice across Japanese history, many of which developed independently of this particular court codification.