Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series by Lafcadio Hearn: “Doubtless the difficulty of explaining Shinto has been due simply to the fact that the sinologists have sought for the source of it in books: in the Kojiki and the Nihongi, which are its histories; in the Norito, which are its prayers; in the commentaries of Motowori and Hirata, who were its greatest scholars.”
Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation by Lafcadio Hearn: “This custom was abolished, by the Emperor Suinin, about nineteen hundred years ago; and the Nihongi declares that it was then an ancient custom.”
Shinto: The Ancient Religion of Japan by W. G. Aston: “The Nihongi, a work of similar scope, though based more on an existing written literature, was produced a few years later (720). It quotes numerous variants of the religious myths current at this time.”