 The fundamental approach of the project was Neo-Confucianist, based on the view that historical development followed moral laws.Tokugawa Mitsukuni believed that Japan, as a nation that had long been under the unified rule of the emperor, was a perfect exemplar of a "nation" as understood in Sinocentric thought.The "Dai Nihon-shi" thus became a history of Japan as ruled by the emperors and emphasised respect for the imperial court and Shinto deities.