Keichu (a scholar of the Japanese classics) argued that this literature 'just mentions the traditions that have been told since a mythological age,' and that to learn the essence of Shintoism attention needs to paid to official events (religious services in particular) held at the Imperial Court and religious services held at shrines; about the latter, the approach has been passed down in folklore since Kunio YANAGITA's generation.
なお、契沖はこれらの文献を「神代ヨリ有ツル事ドモ記セルノミ」に過ぎないので、神道の根本を知るためには朝廷日本の朝廷における公式行事（特に祭祀）や諸神社における祭祀に注目すべきであると説き、後者については柳田國男以降の民俗学にその精神が受け継がれている。