 In his concern with eschatology, fertility, the affective realm, the supernatural and cosmology, Atsutane moved Kokugaku in distinctively religious directions, and by jettisoning the arduous philological exegesis of forebears like Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga, Atsutane made the nativist spirituality of Kokugaku immeasurably more accessible, with a special appeal directed toward the farmers who comprised some 80% of the population during his lifetime.