If one were to ask any member of the general public, Japanese or otherwise, to describe the first mental image of Japan that comes to mind, and most likely that image will have been colored by the influence of Motoori Norinaga. Norinaga converted Japan from, in his eyes, a culture too heavily inveigled by Chinese ideologies to one that excluded foreign persuasions and was strictly "Japanese". His main focus was that of mono no aware; in addition, he heavily promoted the ideas of aestheticism, spontaneous virtue, and naturalism, which are still fundamental parts of Japanese culture. In Norinaga's attempt to distill the Japanese culture, he made an undeniable impact on the popular interpretation of Japan.
Norinaga's most notable works were his annotations on the Kojiki and the Tale of Genji. Rather than take these works as teachings of morality, he focused on their artistic value and their cathartic properties. The Tale of Genji was primarily viewed as a story of good and evil, thought to be riddled with Buddhist and Confucian ideals. Included in this was the character's sukuse, or implications of their previous lives on their current life, which brought an appreciation for history and cause and effect. In reading the Tale of Genji, Norinaga subordinated and even criticized these foreign elements, but rather he emphasized the sensitivity that it brought to life reader's life, what he called "mono no aware". He extolled the virtues of expressing emotion and feelings, often of sadness and pity, drawn out by life and nature. This total disregard of the foreign is actually incomplete and contradictory, though, as the sukuse and the mono no aware actually compliment each other in bringing about a complete awareness of all that affects life.
Motoori Norinaga rejected Confucian teachings that he felt were debilitating to society. He discounted rationalism, and instead proposed aestheticism. A typical romanticized image of Japan, usually incorporating images of spring, cherry blossoms, and the morning sun, is based on this emphasis on the aesthetic, and is a radical shift from the Medieval preference for aspects of autumn, pine trees, bamboo shoots, plum trees, and dusk. Rather than the old appreciation of cold logic, Norinaga preferred the emotion inducing properties of the visual aesthetic. He disregarded the emphasis on moralism, alternatively asserting spontaneous virtue. He felt people shouldn't hold ethics as an obligation to a code of order, and should do good because they are inclined to by their own will. Finally, Norinaga discredited the emphasis on artificialism in lieu of naturalism. He spurned the focus on the abstractions of dreams, illusions, and the idea of the Pure Land teachings, rather emphasizing the present and the natural.
Though Norinaga's logic was, at times, flawed and excessively exclusive, he radically changed the cultural outlook of Japan. If one were to ask a Japanese person what the essence of Japan is, there is a high probability that they would quote Norinaga or some other waka poetry. His work instilled an undeniable sense of national pride and unity, that has never dissipated. Anyone's first mental image associated with Japan is likely a picturesque postcard of Mt. Fuji, set against a clear morning sky with the last traces of the morning fog lingering, with a branch of a cherry tree in blossom overlain across the foreground. This is Norinaga's Japan.