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Chapter 9. Kyoto Imperial University: Early Years (1910–1912)
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Chapter 9 Kyoto Imperial University Early Years (1910–1912) Nishida moved to Kyoto. He was forty years old, and Kotomi, thirty- five years old, was pregnant for the eighth time. By the time Nishida arrived in Kyoto, the rest of his family was already settled in a house on Konoe Street, a few blocks south of the university campus. Right away, he wrote postcards to his friends in Tokyo, informing them of his new address. He then called on Yamamoto. In the evening of the same day he visited Kotomi’s parents, Tokuda Tagayasu and Tei, who were living in the precinct of the Chion’in Temple. During the first week after his arrival in Kyoto, he took his family for walks to such famous places as the Golden Pavilion, the Saga area, Kiyomizu Temple , Sanjüsangendö, and Higashi-honganji, taking in the air of Kyoto. He also called on Kuwaki Gen’yoku, the head of the philosophy department. On one rainy day, instead of going out for a walk, he put his books in order. He also saw his office on campus and visited Fujii Otoo, his former colleague from the Fourth Higher School who had been teaching Japanese literature in the Department of Literature since November 1909. Kyoto Imperial University, founded in 1897, opened its College of Humanities in 1906, with Kanö Kökichi as the founding dean of the college. Kanö was supported by Matsumoto Bunzaburö, Kuwaki Gen’yoku , Kano Naoki, and Tanimoto Tomeri. These founding members felt that the new college should be “thoroughly academic and dedicated to research, and yet open and liberal.”1 Because their institution was the “younger” brother of Tokyo Imperial University, they hoped to distinguish themselves by designing a unique curriculum and adopting an unconventional method of hiring professors.2 At Tokyo Imperial University only its own graduates with promising careers in acade- Kyoto Imperial University (1910 –1912) mia were considered for faculty positions; at Kyoto they chose to hire men of talents far beyond the confines of academic walls.3 Kanö Kökichi was probably the one who pushed this policy of “identifying talents in the wild” (no ni iken o motomu). In the early days, however, Kanö felt tension with the government and resigned from the university on October 21, 1908, leaving Matsumoto Bunzaburö to succeed to the position of dean. Without this liberal hiring policy, it would not have been possible to appoint Nishida as assistant professor, because he lacked a proper university diploma (the “limited status” diploma did not count). He was appointed assistant professor of ethics, replacing Tomoeda Takahiko , who was leaving to study abroad for several years.4 It appears that Nishida’s position was more than a temporary replacement from the beginning. There must have been an agreement that he would be retained as a permanent member of the faculty. Before Nishida got busy preparing his lectures, he took his family to Kanazawa on August 11. It was a cherished duty to report to his mother his new appointment as assistant professor at the Imperial University. That he was finally able to “earn his bread as a philosopher ” greatly gladdened his mother, Tosa, who had raised him in her unwavering conviction that “there was no one more precious in the world than a scholar.” Nishida and his family stayed at the house at Chanokichö, where Tosa, Masa, Yayoi, and Toshiko were living. He made his rounds, seeing his former colleagues at the Fourth Higher School, and called on those to whom he owed special thanks, especially Kamiyama Kosaburö, his teacher of mathematics when he was still a teenager. Master Setsumon happened to be in Kanazawa, and the two picked up their friendship where they had left it. On Saturday, August 20, Nishida arranged for a Buddhist ceremony at the Chörakuji Temple in Unoke to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his grandfather’s death, the thirteenth anniversary of his father’s death, the twenty-seventh anniversary of his older sister Nao’s death, and the seventh anniversary of the death of his younger brother, Hyöjirö. The family and relatives gathered for this occasion. In those days, when the sons of the family reached a respectable social position, they were expected to hold such a Buddhist ceremony to honor the ancestors. Having duly executed his filial duty, Nishida and his family spent several more days in Kanazawa, where he saw his former colleague Takahashi Shüji off for Tokyo—to teach, in...