 Motoori Norinaga saw the roots of the discipline in Keichū’s (1640–1701) use of historical linguistics to analyze the eighth-century collection of poems called Man’yōshū, whereas Atsutane found it in the Japanese-studies academic efforts of Kada no Azumamaro (1669–1736). Both included Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769) in their list of founders. In any case, after Hirata Atsutane, the lineage of Kokugaku’s leaders became more complex as the new Meiji state used Kokugaku notions of racial identity and cultural superiority to mobilize support for Japan’s nationalist ideology and purported international destiny. After 1945 such notions of racial identity and cultural superiority were briefly considered taboo and replaced by less toxic arguments regarding Japanese uniqueness, though these too have morphed yet again into the broad category of Nihonjinron, “theories of Japaneseness” which is a major strain within contemporary Japanese popular culture.