Japanese Philosophy

Seminario Popolare sul Pensiero dell'Estremo Oriente (4 Ed.). Perché guardare a Oriente?

by Pietro Piro

Programma delle giornate di studi: Perché guardare a Oriente? Termini Imerese 5-6 Maggio 2012.

Nella giornata di studi Perchè guardare a Oriente?  I ricercatori coinvolti,  a partire dalle proprie... more Nella giornata di studi Perchè guardare a Oriente?  I ricercatori coinvolti,  a partire dalle proprie competenze e dai propri interessi, cercheranno di chiarire, in modo semplice e “popolare” perché è necessario conoscere e approfondire un tema legato ad un aspetto del pensiero Orientale (musica, arte, filosofia, religione, cinema..etc). In questo modo, si cercherà di trovare ragioni vitali, e non esclusivamente accademiche o commerciali, per accostarsi all’Oriente. Il tentativo è quello di avvicinare quante più persone possibili ad una cultura che rimane, nonostante l’accelerazione dei ritmi globalizzanti, relegata in secondo piano e ristretta o al cerchio ristretto degli specialisti o esposta alla banalizzazione del pensiero unico. Si cercherà dunque, di offrire delle risposte che possano essere un vero punto d’inizio per chi, spesso carico di pregiudizi, si accosta per la prima volta ad un mondo così complesso e affascinante. La sfida non è semplice. Si cercherà di non esporre una teoria preconfezionata, quanto di cercare di aprirsi al dialogo interrogante e stabilire insieme ragioni superiori e condivise.

Gli studi di religioni e filosofie giapponesi in Italia (The Italian studies on Japanese religions and philosophies)

by Matteo Cestari

Published in Heisig, James W. (ed.), Japanese Philosophy Abroad, Nagoya, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2004, pp. 122-147. In Italian.

Japanese translation: “Itaria ni okeru Nihon no shūkyō-tetsugaku kenkyū” 「イタリアにおける日本の宗教・哲学研究」, in J. W. Heisig hen, Nihon tetsugaku no kokusaisei. Kaigai ni okeru juyō to tenbō 『日本哲学の国際性・海外における受容と展望』, Kyoto, Sekai shisōsha 世界思想社, 2006, pp. 149-181. Japanese version not uploaded for editorial copyright reasons.

¿Más allá de la metafísica del concepto? La nada y la negacion en la lógica del lugar

by Matteo Cestari

Published in: A. Jacinto-Zavala (ed.), Alternativas Filosóficas. Investigaciones recientes sobre la filosofía de Nishida Kitarô, fundador de la Escuela de Kioto, Morelia, Michoacan, Morevallado Editores, 2012, pp. 111-158.
Translation from Italian to Spanish by: Augustin Jacinto Zavala and Heron Perez Martinez.

The Knowing Body: Nishida's Philosophy of Active Intuition (Kōiteki chokkan)

by Matteo Cestari

Published in "The Eastern Buddhist", Vol. XXXI, No. 2, 1998, pp. 179-208.

Between Emptiness and Absolute Nothingness: Reflections on Negation in Nishida and Buddhism

by Matteo Cestari

Published in: James W. Heisig & Rein Raud (eds.), Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 7. Classical Japanese Philosophy, Nagoya, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2010, pp. 320-346.

This essay examines the relationship between Nishida's foundational notion of absolute nothingness and the classical... more This essay examines the relationship between Nishida's foundational notion of absolute nothingness and the classical Buddhist idea of emptiness. I reflect on the possibilities and risks of using Buddhism as hermeneutic paradigm in approaching the complexities of a modern Japanese philosophy with its alleged, but philologically ambiguous, references to a premodern Buddhist context.

The Problem of Aesthetics in Nishida Kitaro

by Matteo Cestari

Published in: Michele Marra (ed.), Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, V, 2004, pp. 175-191.

From Seeing to Acting. Rethinking Nishida's Practical Philosophy

by Matteo Cestari

Published in: James W. Heisig & Raquel Bouso (eds.), Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 6. Confluences and Cross-Currents, Nagoya, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2009, pp. 273-296.

In reply to critics who summarily dismiss Nishida's philosophy as weakened on the historical front by excessive... more In reply to critics who summarily dismiss Nishida's philosophy as weakened on the historical front by excessive attention to the mind and interiority, in this essay I provide textual proof of a major shift in Nishida's late work based on the attept to overcome the dichotomy between the "within" and the "without". This is accomplished by applying a "dialectic of the historical world" to the mutual self-expression of the world and the things that make it up, including ut not restricted to conscious subjects. I see here the core of Nishida's complementary ideas of praxis and poiesis, and from there discuss the reviesd notions of politics, technology, morality and history. I conclude by displacing a blanket rejection of Nishida's view of history with a particular critique aimed at an overly abstract and optimistic tendency that kept Nishida from recognizing the darker side of technology and the relationships of humans to their natural and social world.

Bref synthèse des questions qui ont entourées le mémoire que j'ai présenté au Japon en 2009 .

by Pierre Bonneels

Der Buddhismus und die Moderne am Beispiel der Philosophie Nishida Kitarôs

by Christian Uhl

Published in: Denkt Asien Anders? Reflexionen über Konfuzianismus und Buddhismus in Indien, Tibet, China und Japan (Does Asia Think Differently? Considerations Concerning Confucianism and Buddhism in India, Tibet, China and Japan), edited by Birgit Kellner and Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (Vienna: Vienna University Press, 2009), pp. 121 - 158.

Self and other

by Laurentiu Andrei

The Architectural Spaces "Yoo" and "Wa" in the Traditional European and Japanese Cultures.Contemporary Processes of Convergence in the Conditions of Globalization

by Nadya Stamatova

Engaging with Ku˜: from abstraction to meaning through the practice of noticing

by Yoko Akama

Co-authored with Laurene Vaughan, presented at Architecture and Phenomenology 2 conference, Kyoto Seika University, Japan, June 26 – 30, 2009.

This paper presents a design project that explored the practice of “noticing”. Noticing is a way in and through which... more This paper presents a design project that explored the practice of “noticing”. Noticing is a way in and through which we are able to understand and create our relationship to space and place. The practice of noticing can facilitate awareness, reflection, learning and transformation (Mason 2002). Noticing is a practice that enables us to engage with the concept of Ku˜, meaning “space”, in Japanese. In this project context, Ku˜ is interpreted as a space of potentiality rather than emptiness or nothingness. Engaging with Ku˜ through the practice of noticing can enable a transition from abstraction to meaning. Ku˜ can also be an expression of the ambiguous potential of design investigations: including knowing and the unknown, the limitations and the challenges. To practice design in this way is to step outside of the confines of certainty and embark on an exploratory path of discovery. Just as design is a way of engaging with space – to enunciate the unknown, to create meaning from the abstract – so too is noticing as a temporal practice of discovery and place making. Through the act of noticing the ambiguous openness of space is transformed into the connectedness of place (Casey 2001).

能勢朝次の世阿弥解釈における「型」と「無心」──西田幾多郎の影響をめぐって Form[Kata/型] and Mindlessness[Mushin/無心] in Nose Asaji's Commentary on Zeami's Treatises: on the Influence of Nishida Kitaro

by Taro Yokoyama

『国文学 解釈と教材の研究』50巻7号、2005年7月。
published in "Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to Kyozai no Kenkyu", vol.50, No.7, 2005.7.
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40006720828
[Uploaded file is the penultimate draft; please refer to the published version for citation purposes.]

世阿弥伝書の範例的な注釈書となった『世阿弥十六部集評釈』（1940-1944年）は、『能楽源流考』によって知られる能勢朝次の、いま一つの主著である。この『評釈』や、それと密接な関係にある彼の理論的論著は、質量共に近代日本における思想的な世阿... more 世阿弥伝書の範例的な注釈書となった『世阿弥十六部集評釈』（1940-1944年）は、『能楽源流考』によって知られる能勢朝次の、いま一つの主著である。この『評釈』や、それと密接な関係にある彼の理論的論著は、質量共に近代日本における思想的な世阿弥受容の一つの極点をなすものであり、今日に至る世阿弥伝書の理解やそれに基づく日本文化論のあり方を、暗黙裡に規定してきたと言える。本稿は、こうした能勢による世阿弥解釈の分析を通じて、それが身体表現をめぐる〈近代の超克〉と言うべき思想的関心に根ざすものであったこと、さらにそこには西田幾多郎の哲学の影響が見られることを明らかにした。
Nose Asaji, a scholar of Japanese literature and theatre, wrote "Commentary on Zeami's Sixteen Treatises“ in early 1940's, which  guided the reception of Zeami ever since. I reveal that Nose's commentary reflects his concern for overcoming mind-body dualism by showing traditional corporeal wisdom, and that he developed the idea under the influence of Nishida Kitaro's philosophy.

日本的身体論の形成―「京都学派」を中心として― Formation and Development of Culturalist Discourses on 'Japanese Body': Kyoto School's Philosophy of the Body and Its Reception

by Taro Yokoyama

『UTCP研究論集』2号、2005年。
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40007269879

京都学派の哲学者たちは、後の現象学的身体論を先取りするような身体観を提示した。本稿は、こうした京都学派の身体論の生成と展開を西田幾多郎や田辺元のテキストに沿って内在的に読解しながら、その本来の近代認識論批判の立場（日本的「身体論」）が文化本... more 京都学派の哲学者たちは、後の現象学的身体論を先取りするような身体観を提示した。本稿は、こうした京都学派の身体論の生成と展開を西田幾多郎や田辺元のテキストに沿って内在的に読解しながら、その本来の近代認識論批判の立場（日本的「身体論」）が文化本質主義的イデオロギー（「日本的身体」論）へと転じる機制を明らかにした。そのうえで、20世紀後半になって古典芸能の身体性や世阿弥の能楽論を安易に「日本文化」に還元して解釈する「日本的身体」論が横行する言説状況が到来したことを批判した。
The Kyoto School philosophers, Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, etc., produced theoretical discourses of the body in 1930's, which foreran Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body. This paper reveals the process of their discussion and examines how those metaphysical debates on the body that appeared in modern Japan(日本的「身体論」) fell into cultural essentialism(「日本的身体」論).

Japanese and Korean Philosophy

by Koji Tanaka

The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy, Jay Garfield and William Edelglass (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 287-301, 2011.

Remodelando el Shinto en el Japón Contemporáneo: Miyazaki, Totoro y la Reinterpretación de los Kami

by Veronica Walker-Vadillo

Course work, Far East Asian Thought and Religion, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, grade: A

The paper analyses shinto elements in Tonari no Totoro and discusses the influence of Miyazaki in reshaping shinto in... more The paper analyses shinto elements in Tonari no Totoro and discusses the influence of Miyazaki in reshaping shinto in modern Japan.

National Consciousness and the Evolution of the Civil/Martial Binary in East Asia

by Oleg Benesch

Published in June 2011 issue of 'Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies,' pp. 129-171.

Abstract
The binary of martial and civil virtues (wen-wu) is one of the oldest and most pervasive concepts in... more Abstract
The binary of martial and civil virtues (wen-wu) is one of the oldest and most pervasive concepts in East Asian thought.  This paper examines the transmission of Chinese wen-wu thought to Japan, and its subsequent independent development in that country.  Whereas in China and Korea, primacy has traditionally been given to civil virtues over martial ones, the unique warrior-centered social and governmental structure that developed in Japan led its thinkers to more strongly emphasize the martial.  As a result, at least in the context of wen-wu, many Japanese were willing to accept, rather than invert, the China/barbarian binary that marked continental interpretations.  In comparison, many Japanese Confucians and related schools of thought had otherwise tended to revise ideas imported from China in ways that removed them from their source and relocated the moral center to Japan.  The identification of Japan as the “martial country” and China/Korea as the “civil countries” came to be broadly accepted by intellectuals in all three societies.  At the same time, the exact nature of Japanese “martiality” varied greatly among different thinkers, often to the extent that definitions of the concept could be polar opposites.  This paper argues that it was this vagueness and flexibility of the wen-wu binary that ensured its continued prominence as the concepts were adapted to new situations, and further led to movements by Chinese and Korean thinkers to introduce Japanese martiality into their own nations around the turn of the twentieth century.  In this process, Japanese bun-bu (wen-wu) theories were variously packaged with the teachings of Wang Yangming and the modern martial ethic of bushido (the way of the warrior), and this paper considers the roles of the reformers Liang Qichao and Pak Un-sik in the dissemination of bun-bu thought in China and Korea, respectively.

摘要
文、武二分法是東亞思想中最古老且最為普遍的概念之一。本文檢視中國文武思想傳至日本，及其在該國的後續獨立發展。「文」在中國和韓國傳統上位於「武」之上，居首位，而日本因發展出以武士為中心的獨特社會與政治結構，使其思想家特別強調「武」。因此，至少在文、武的脈絡下，許多日本人願意接受，而非轉化，標誌著大陸解釋的華夷之辨。相較而言，許多日本儒家及相關學派的思想卻傾向於將自中國傳入的思想以將其與源頭分離，並將道德中心重置於日本的方式，加以修訂。日本等同「武國」，中國和韓國等同「文國」為三個社會的知識分子廣泛接受。與此同時，各思想家對於日本「武」的真正內涵卻有極為不同的見解，其間的歧異往往到對該概念的定義可以完全相反的程度。本文主張，便是這種對文武二分法的含糊不清與彈性，確保其在適應新形勢時能持續突顯，並進而導致中國和韓國思想家於二十世紀初將日本的「武」介紹給其祖國的運動。在此過程中，日本的文武理論與王陽明的學說、武士道的現代武術倫理有各種不同程度的結合。本文分別討論改革家梁啟超和朴殷植於文武思想在中國與韓國傳布上的角色。

Review Article Ch. Goto-Jones: Re-politicizing the Kyoto School as Philosophy

by Elena Louisa Lange

'In Repose': a photo-essay

by Mayu Kanamori

Samurai Thought: Overview

by Oleg Benesch

In Jim Heisig et al eds. "Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook." Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2011. pp. 1103-1114.