Figures walk the way the book reads

Claim (verbatim)

Figures walk the way the book reads. That Japanese handscroll action tends right-to-left is a specialist commonplace; the unestablished claim is the full mechanism test across cultures. If lateral bias comes from the reading technology — the image must hand the eye onward to the next scene — then the bias must flip sign with reading direction (leftward in emaki, rightward in Western narrative registers such as the Bayeux embroidery), and it must weaken toward zero in single-panel votive images from the same cultures, where there is no next scene to hand the eye to.

Prediction clause (verbatim)

Primary clause (the verdict follows it, requiring both arms): coded locomotion directions of figures and processions show opposite majority signs — at least 65 percent leftward across at least 10 digitized narrative emaki, and at least 65 percent rightward in the Bayeux Tapestry plus Western narrative registers. Secondary dose clause: single-panel non-narrative images from both cultures show under 55 percent directional bias.

Kill-dataset (verbatim)

Kill: e-Museum (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan) digitized emaki and the Bayeux Museum's complete online panorama of the tapestry.

Novelty / leakage triage

provisional — model-triaged, shepherd review pending

A provisional first pass authored by the model (Opus), not yet confirmed by the shepherd. It carries the same dated-search requirements as an authoritative verdict but is excluded from every headline figure and cannot underwrite a prediction until a shepherd confirms it. Provisional reading: Adjacent (closely related prior work exists).

That Japanese emaki action and reading both run right-to-left is a specialist commonplace (the item concedes it), and the Bayeux Tapestry's left-to-right narrative register is equally standard. Not located: the item's full cross-cultural mechanism test -- that coded locomotion direction shows OPPOSITE majority signs (>= 65 percent leftward across >= 10 narrative emaki, >= 65 percent rightward in the Bayeux Tapestry and Western narrative registers) AND weakens to under 55 percent bias in single-panel non-narrative votive images from both cultures, tying lateral bias to the reading technology (the image handing the eye onward). Directionality documented per tradition; the sign-flip-with-reading-direction plus single-panel placebo is unrun.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Japanese Illustrated Handscrolls' (emaki read and viewed right-to-left, cinematic unrolling) — The right-to-left directionality of emaki that the item concedes is a commonplace.
• e-Museum (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan) digitized emaki and the Bayeux Museum's online panorama of the tapestry — The kill dataset for the cross-cultural locomotion-direction sign-flip and single-panel placebo test.

Predictions

No prediction registered yet.