Originally compiled in the eighth century in response to an official call for a history of Japan, the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan) was for over one thousand years perhaps the most authoritative work on the origins of Japan and its deities. It was not originally intended as a religious text, except insofar as the worship of the deities by their descendants was considered part of government at the time; as the centuries passed, however, the interpretive traditions centered on the Nihongi developed into major Shinto lineages. Even after it was downgraded in the nineteenth century in favor of the slightly older Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), the tales of the age of the gods found in the first two scrolls of the Nihongi remained part of the mythology of divine lineage that was officially supported until the end of World War II, and they are still studied for insight into early Japanese religion and politics.