Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960)

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WATSUJI TETSURŌ
(1889–1960)

Watsuji Tetsurō, the best philosopher of ethics of modern Japan, was known also for his studies of cultural history. He was born in Himeji and died in Tokyo. Watsuji's work can be divided into three categories: his early literary efforts, his philological and historical studies, and his works on an ethical system. Gifted with literary talent, he wrote some short novels and a play while still studying philosophy, but these had no great success. Among his early philosophical essays are those on Friedrich Nietzsche (Tokyo, 1913) and on Søren Kierkegaard (Tokyo, 1915). His cult of ancient Greece, manifested in Gūzō saikō (The revivals of the idols; Tokyo, 1918), developed into an interest in the cultural history of his own country. His first work on this subject was Nihon kodai bunka (Ancient Japanese culture; Tokyo, 1920). Japanese culture and character were to be the subject of his constant study, as was attested by his Nihon seishin-shi (The history of Japanese spirit; 2 vols., Tokyo, 1926, 1934). Meanwhile, his other studies, based on philological research, covered the textual questions about Homer, primitive Christianity, early Buddhism, and Confucius. While these works differ in scientific value, they contain many insights and reveal him as more a litterateur than an expert philologist and historian. This is obvious in his well-known Fūdo (Tokyo, 1934; translated as A Climate, 1961), a work of psychological intuition and deep sensibility rather than a scientific or philosophical study of the conditioning effect of climate on culture.

A turning point in his career was his appointment as assistant professor of ethics at Kyoto University (1925). Out of his lectures at Kyoto grew his Ningengaku toshite no rinrigaku (Ethics as anthropology), a treatise of systematic ethics, initiated in 1931. Watsuji's ethic was designed as a Japanese system based upon the essential relationships of man to man, man to family, and man to society. In contrast with the private, individual ethics of the West, his ethic sees man as involved in community and society. Rinri (ethics) in Sino-Japanese characters meant for him the principle (ri —or li in Chinese) of companionship (rin ). Furthermore, he introduced the Buddhist dialectic elements (negation of negation) to show how the individual is absorbed into the whole. It is true that in postwar years he rewrote the parts of his ethics concerning the state and the emperor. Yet his achievement was that he systematized—although in Western categories—a traditional ethics that is a substantial part of the ethos of Japan and also of China. His attitude toward East-West contacts may be surmised from his Sakoku Nihon no higeki (National seclusion, Japan's tragedy; Tokyo, 1951). His two-volume Nihon rinri shisō-shi (History of Japanese ethical thought; Tokyo, 1952) is a major contribution to the subject. Western philosophers who had a great influence upon Watsuji were Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.

Bibliography

Japanese primary sources include Watsuji Tetsurō zenshū (The complete works of Watsuji Tetsurō), 27 vols. (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1961–1992), and Jijoden no kokoromi (An attempt in autobiography; Tokyo, 1961).

Watsuji's Fūdo has been translated into English as A Climate by G. Bownas (Tokyo, 1961). A discussion of his work may be found in G. K. Piovesana, Recent Japanese Philosophical Thought, 1862–1962 (Tokyo: Enderle Bookstore, 1963), pp. 131–145.

Gino K. Piovesana, S.J. (1967)

Encyclopedia of Philosophy