Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Kojiki-den
Norinaga's 1798 'Kojiki-den' — 44-volume magnum opus commentary on the Kojiki, completed after 34 years' work
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Kojiki-den (Late (career-spanning)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Kojiki-den
1764-1798 composition; 1790-1822 serial publication. Norinaga began the project at 35 and worked on it for the rest of his life.
Space
Kojiki-den
Matsusaka (Ise Province) — Norinaga's residence and the centre of his Kokugaku scholarly community.
Matter
Kojiki-den
44-volume scholarly commentary (~6000 pages in standard editions). Form is the volume-by-volume Kojiki commentary, working through the text systematically.
Observer
Kojiki-den
Mature Norinaga. The observer-philologist-philosopher is the most rigorous Kokugaku scholar of his generation, applying philological-textual method to the most important ancient Japanese text.
Energy
Kojiki-den
Three-decade scholarly-hermeneutical energies. The Kojiki-den is one of the largest single scholarly projects in eighteenth-century Japanese intellectual history.
Information
Kojiki-den
44 volumes of commentary on the Kojiki. Each volume averages ~150 pages; the cumulative apparatus is unrivalled in Japanese pre-modern scholarship.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Norinaga's magnum opus and the defining work of Kokugaku scholarship; still the standard reference commentary. The book's combination of rigorous philological scholarship with explicit religious-philosophical commitment (the Way of the Kami as the original Way of Japan against Confucian and Buddhist 'foreign' Ways) has been continuously productive — both in Japanese intellectual history (Hirata Atsutane, the broader Kokugaku tradition through State Shintō to the contemporary Shintō revival) and in modern Japanese-philosophical scholarship (Kuki, Watsuji, the Kyoto School).