Zen and Philosophy

Chapter 18. Formation of the Kyoto School of Philosophy: (1929–1932)

Chapter 18 Formation of the Kyoto School of Philosophy (1929–1932) Nishida was enjoying his first winter in Kamakura. On February 1, 1929, he was appointed professor emeritus.1 Visitors from the Kantö area continued to stream in to his rented house at Zaimokuchö. The popular writer, Kurata Hyakuzö, who made Nishida’s Zen no kenkyü a best-seller, called on him twice in February, and Tanabe Juri, Odaka Tomoo, Honda Kenzö, Miyamoto Wakichi, and Ösaka Motokichirö were among other callers. He saw Kuki Shüzö at a beachside hotel in Kamakura. On March 2 Nishida gave a talk at the Philosophical Society at Tokyo Imperial University on “Kant and Husserl,” which he later retitled “Watakushi no handanteki ippansha to iu mono” [What I call the judging universal] and published in the Tetsugaku Zasshi.2 By the time Nishida wrapped up his stay in Kamakura, he had completed “Jikakuteki ippansha ni oite aru mono oyobi sore to sono haigo ni aru mono to no kankei” [That which exists in the self-conscious universal , and its relationship to what is behind it].3 On March 10, shortly before Nishida’s departure, Iwanami took him for a drive in a chauffeured limousine; they enjoyed a ride around the Miura Peninsula, seeing such sights as the memorial where Commodore M. C. Perry had landed. Nishida left Kamakura on March 15, but before returning to Kyoto on March 20, he spent a few days in Tokyo. Höjö Tokiyuki was seriously ill, and Nishida wanted to see his mentor for the last time. Höjö died on April 27 at the age of seventytwo , and with his death one more chapter of Nishida’s life closed.4 He wrote an essay remembering his mentor, “Höjö sensei ni hajimete oshie o uketa koro” [Around the time I first received instruction from Professor Höjö].5 In addition, friends and former colleagues decided Formation of the Kyoto School of Philosophy (1929–1932) to compile Höjö’s letters, speeches, addresses, journal entries, and other writings into a book, and Oda Shögaku wrote a brief biography of the great educator. Yamamoto Ryökichi took charge of collecting the material, while Nishida served as nominal editor. This tribute to Höjö Tokiyuki, Kakudö hen’ei [Glimpses of greatness], was published on June 25, 1931. In March 1929 Shizuko’s lung condition, which had been touch and go, worsened. After some deliberation, Nishida decided to put her under the care of professionals at a sanatorium on Lake Biwa. In April Sotohiko got a teaching position at Könan Higher School as a professor of physics, and the young couple, with baby Kikuhiko, moved to Sumiyoshi. Their departure from under Nishida’s roof left a big empty space at home. Nishida began to concentrate on his work to forget his loneliness. While Sotohiko and Asako had been living with him, he had moved his study upstairs so that the study could be used as the reception room. Now he moved his study back where it had been. He even moved his bed into the study and practically lived there. On May 2, he began working on the essay, “Ippansha no jikogentei” [The self-determination of the universal].6 The following waka is not really an exaggeration. Reclining on this chair I write tucking myself into this bed I sleep day in, day out 7 He wrote to Hori: “Over here I feel hurried and unable to compose any poems. . . . These days I don’t even take a walk but spend the whole day cooped up in a room doing nothing. I’m really a hermit! I’m becoming lazier and don’t feel like doing anything.”8 In fact, far from “being lazy,” he was single-mindedly plowing ahead and advancing his thought, completing “Ippansha no jikogentei to jikaku” [The selfdetermination of the universal and self-consciousness]9 and “Jikakuteki gentei kara mita ippansha no gentei” [The determination of the universal viewed from the perspective of the determination of selfconsciousness ].10 By October 1929 the last of this series of essays was completed,11 and during the following January the essays he had written in the previous two years were collected in a single volume, Ippansha no jikakuteki taikei [The self-conscious structure of the universal]. Nishida’s assiduous work, pushing through what happened to be an 228 Formation of the Kyoto School of Philosophy (1929...