 Among scholars gathered for the project were Asaka Tanpaku (1656–1737), Sassa Munekiyo (1640–1698), Kuriyama Senpō (1671–1706), and Miyake Kanran (1673–1718).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.