This scholarly study reads the contradictions and discrepancies in the Nihon Shoki through analyses of style, annotations, and language use, rather than smoothing them over with traditional readings or later interpretations. Placing the text within East Asian exchanges of writing, Classical Chinese, and documents, it traces the gradual, multilayered process through which the chronicle was compiled.

Approaching the Nihon Shoki through language, this book traces how the chronicle was compiled and came into being.