The Kyoto School: An Introduction

4. Watsuji Tetsuro (1889–1960)

4 Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960) Whether what we call “the West” has always been incorrigibly tilted towards a prioritizing of the individual and a neglect of what Watsuji called “betweenness” (aidagara) is, I think, an important question. . . . During the recent centuries of their intellectual and social life, Europe and America have placed a stress on the individual to such an extent that intellectuals in certain Asian contexts have come to view that emphasis as an imbalance needing to be challenged. Watsuji was arguably the best read and the most sharply articulate among the Asian thinkers who addressed this problem. And the Ethics is where he best demonstrated that point of view and the challenge to thought implicit within it. —William R. LaFleur, “Foreword,” in Watsuji Tetsuro’s Rinrigaku: Ethics in Japan Life and Career Watsuji serves as a vital contrast to the other Kyoto School thinkers, for whereas Nishida’s focus was on metaphysics and epistemology and logic, and both Tanabe and Nishitani took religion as their focus, Watsuji emphasized ethics and culture. And like Japan itself, after its forced opening to non‑Japanese in 1854, he was conflicted by what seemed to be the superiority of Western cultures. Yet, it was anything but clear what gave Western cultures supremacy in military arms and industry, and for a time the Japanese speculated 125 126 / The Kyoto School that perhaps it was the result of Christianity. Some even urged the Emperor to renounce Shintō and convert to Christianity. Such a step was deemed unacceptable to most Japanese, but the exam‑ ple serves to illustrate just how humbled Japan was by this early encounter of unequals. A glorification of anything Western and a rejection of things Japanese began to take hold. Japan was in shock, and it took time and much thought to recover both bal‑ ance and pride. The young Watsuji had little interest in things Japanese, for his passion was for Western literature, especially the poetry of Byron. He wished to emulate Byron, hoping to be a poet him‑ self. But he was also taken with Nietzsche’s philosophy. It was the emphasis on individuality that enthralled him, a way of life so different from the Japanese emphasis on the importance of the group. But by the time he reached his late teens and early twenties he began to reject much that he had gleaned from his studies of the West and began to plumb the depths of Japanese and Eastern cultures generally. He was a major force in Japan’s rediscovery of its past, including its cultural achievements such as architecture, poetry, and its remarkable social solidarity. Born the son of a physician in 1889, in the village of Nibuno (now part of Himeji City), he eventually moved from literature as a central focus, to philosophy. He attended Tokyo Imperial Uni‑ versity (then called the First Higher School), and as his gradua‑ tion thesis he decided to write on Nietzsche. One can speculate why Nietzsche was rejected as a suitable subject for a graduate thesis in philosophy, but it likely had to do with the fact that Nietzsche was a poet‑philosopher. Indeed, until quite recently in the West, Nietzsche was studied in departments of literature and not in departments of philosophy. However that may be, at the very last minute he was forced to write a second thesis, and he chose to write on Arthur Schopenhauer. His thesis was entitled “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism and Theory of Salvation.” Presented just in time, the thesis was accepted, enabling him to graduate. Significantly, his Nietzschean Studies was later published. Watsuji Tetsurō / 127 As his career developed, he published studies of Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard, as he continued to search out ideas from Western thinkers. However, while at university, he would often stand just outside the classroom window where the well‑known novelist Sōseki Natsumi was lecturing. He never met Sōseki while at university, but shortly afterward he became a member of a study group that gathered in Sōseki`s home. Both Watsuji and Sōseki were beginning to reevaluate Western cultural ideas and their critical focus fell on the idea of individualism. Individualism often led to a lack of social cohesion and a rampant selfishness, in their eyes. Sōseki died three years later, in 1917, and Watsuji published a lengthy reminiscence of Sōseki in 1918. In this piece it was apparent that Watsuji was now...