 More narrowly, some of these studies in the eighteenth century came to focus on Japanese distinctiveness principally vis a vis China, which was now posited as an Other whose historical influence on Japan was construed as harmful. In the nineteenth century the frame of reference expanded to include Europe and the world as a whole. This nativist essentialism was also sometimes called kokugaku, and it came to be the crucible in which Japanese identity was forged. One interpretation was that to be Japanese was to partake in an intuitive conformity with the rhythms of nature, and to possess an untutored heart-mind that fostered the ancient arcadia. Yet another interpretation was that the Japanese people were descended from and as varied as the innumerable kami, some good and some bad, but unmistakably blessed when taken as a whole. 