 For example, the terms for “awe-inspiring being” and “above” have both been pronounced kami since the eight century, but in ancient Japanese they were separate words pronounced differently, disproving a common theory that there was a semantic link between the two. Such discoveries led some thinkers, most notably Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), to take Native Studies in a new direction: the quest for developing a Shintō philosophy grounded in an understanding of the most ancient Japanese texts and their language. In essence, Norinaga hoped to do for Shintō what Edo-period Confucians were doing for their tradition in going back to ancient texts and analyzing their original language.