into two lines. The Ofudesaki is mostly written in a Japanese phonetic syllabary (a precursor to modern hiragana) and employs relatively few kanji (only forty-nine distinct characters). Grammar and syntax Nakayama wrote the Ofudesaki in her native language and dialect, the Japanese language in a dialect called Yamato kotoba or the "language of the Yamato region." Her script seems to be consistent with how rural people in Japan wrote during the late Edo period, when the standardized writing system had yet to be widely adopted. However, as of 2010, a detailed grammatical study has yet to be made of the language of the Ofudesaki. Commentaries so far have tended to explain specific terms from the perspective that the language of the Ofudesaki is not significantly different from the commonly spoken language of the day, meaning that it suffices to understand the Ofudesaki as a reader of that place and time would have understood it. However, the Ofudesaki contains certain syntactical features that require particular care in interpretation, such as non-indicative moods that may be referred to as subjunctive, optative, or imperative. For example, there are verses that should be construed as an imperative, which indicates a command, but are constructed as an optative expressing a wish. References Further reading Inoue, Akio and Enyon, Matthew. A Study of the Ofudesaki. 2nd edition, Tenrikyo Doyusha, 1987, Tenri, Japan. Nakayama, Shozen. Thoughts on a Thematic Outline of the Ofudesaki. External links "The Ofudesaki, The Tip of the Writing Brush" by Yoshikazu Fukaya "Tenrikyō" from World Religions & Spirituality Project Tenrikyo Religious texts