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.
Mattōshō
Shinran's late letters compiled by disciples
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Mattōshō (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Mattōshō
Letters composed c. 1250-1262 (Shinran's last decade in Kyoto); subsequent posthumous compilation across the late 13th-14th c.
Space
Mattōshō
Kyoto composition with Kantō rural follower-network audience; subsequent Honganji-tradition transmission across Japan and modern Shinshū diaspora.
Matter
Mattōshō
Shinjin, nembutsu, assurance, the Hōnen-Shinran relation, the handling of intra-Shinshū doctrinal disputes, the proper response to persecution.
Observer
Mattōshō
Late Shinran as elderly pastor-doctrinal-clarifier writing back to the Kantō follower-community he founded.
Energy
Mattōshō
Pastoral-doctrinal, vernacular-democratic, late-life-summary energies.
Information
Mattōshō
23 letters in vernacular Japanese; combines doctrinal exposition, pastoral counsel, and biographical reflection; accessible to lay Shinshū readership.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Mattōshō has functioned as one of the principal pastoral-doctrinal resources of Jōdo-Shinshū. Late-Edo and Meiji-period Shinshū modernisers (Kiyozawa, Soga, Yasuda) recovered the Mattōshō and the broader Shinran-corpus as resources for a modern Shinshū beyond Honganji-institutional-conservatism, in dialogue with European philosophy and Christianity.