Ryōbu Shintō builds a bridge between Shinto deities and Dainichi Nyorai, weaving together native norito (ritual prayers) with esoteric Buddhist tantras and mandalas. Its canonical backbone actually comes in two flavors: indigenous Shinto liturgies and core Shingon scriptures.

1. Shingon Tantras
   • Mahāvairocana Tantra (Dainichi-kyō): Presents Dainichi as the cosmic Buddha, directly equated with Amaterasu in Ryōbu ritual.
   • Vajrasekhara Sutra (Kongō-kyō): Lays out mudras and mantras whose patterns are mirrored in imperial kami rites.

2. Mandala-rokkon
   • Diamond Realm (Kongōkai) and Womb Realm (Taizōkai) mandalas form a “two-fold world” that maps Shinto gods onto esoteric Buddhist cosmology. Shrines often display miniatures of both, much like a religious Venn diagram.

3. Shinto Norito Collections
   • Engishiki (10th-century registry of shrines and rituals) supplies the official norito. Ryōbu Shintō adds esoteric glosses, reading Amaterasu’s light through tantric symbolism.
   • Amatsu-kami Norito: A specialized set of prayers invoking heavenly deities (Amatsu-kami) in Shingon style.

4. Syncretic Commentaries
   • Ryōbu Hon’i Anmonshō: Offers concise comparisons between Amaterasu’s myth and the Dainichi-kyō.
   • Sannō Gengi Shō: A medieval treatise equating Hie Shrine’s Sannō deity with Kūkai’s cosmic Buddha.

5. Festival Manuals
   • Taizōkai and Kongōkai ritual handbooks, still used today at Kyoto’s Yoshida Shrine during the annual Setsubun ceremonies, where priests trace tantric diagrams in the sand before tossing beans.

Lately, Ryōbu Shintō’s texts have seen a resurgence: Kyoto University hosted a colloquium in spring 2024 on how these scriptures shaped Edo-period shrine architecture. Blending native and imported cosmologies, Ryōbu Shintō texts remind that Japan’s spiritual tapestry is anything but one-dimensional—more like a vibrant patchwork quilt.