Shuzo Kuki (author)

Hello everyone. This is Shoji Shimura from Atelier Shimura.
This week's reading will be introducing Kuki Shuzo's timeless classic, "The Structure of 'Iki'," in three parts.

The textbook we will use is the Kodansha Academic Library edition, which is well-documented and still easily available. As this is a very famous Japanese philosophical book, we encourage you to have the original on hand to read the commentary.

In this first installment, before getting into the main topic, we will delve into the life of Kuki Shuzo and the background to the birth of his unique ideas.

Shuzo Kuki (author) "The Structure of 'Iki'"
Publisher: Kodansha (2003)

【table of contents】
1. Introduction
2. The inclusive structure of “iki”
3. The extensional structure of “iki”
4. Natural expressions of "iki"
5. Artistic Expression of "Iki"
6 Conclusion

1. Three Achievements of the Poet and Philosopher Kuki Shuzo

Kuki Shuzo (1888-1941) was a philosopher with rigorous logic, and at the same time, he is known as a rare "poet-philosopher" who used his logic to shed light on the depths of Japanese culture, as exemplified by his work "The Structure of Iki."

He attempted to uncover the truth behind Japanese culture by using the language and methods of Western philosophy. His achievements can be broadly divided into the following three categories:

 

1. Study of Western philosophy: Rigorous study of modern Western philosophy, including French and German philosophy.

2. Research on Chance: A highly complex and profound philosophical study, exemplified by his major work, The Problem of Chance.

3. Research into Japanese culture: Exploring the unique Japanese aesthetic sense, as exemplified by "The Structure of Iki."

What is particularly noteworthy about Kuki's thought is that, while he was well versed in Western philosophy, it is based on the concept of the "solitary subject." A major feature of his thought is that he viewed the unpredictable encounter between two subjects as "fundamental chance," and developed a "philosophy of relations" from this.

2. A Fateful Upbringing: "Two Fathers" and the Logic of Ellipses

In order to understand Kuki Shuzo's thought, it is impossible to avoid considering his extremely complicated upbringing.

A glamorous family and scandal

He was born in Shiba, Tokyo in 1888 (Meiji 21). His father was Ryuichi Kuki, a baron and Ministry of Education official who served in various positions, including envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the United States and director of the Imperial Museum (now the Tokyo National Museum). His mother was Hatsuko (Hatsu), a former geisha from Gion, Kyoto.

He was born to contrasting parents: his father was a leader in the modernization of Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and his mother symbolized the pre-modern culture that had continued since the Edo period.

However, a decisive incident occurred at this point. A love affair broke out between Hatsuko, Hatsuko's mother, and Okakura Tenshin, one of her father's subordinates. After Hatsuko accompanied her husband Ryuichi on his stay in the United States, Ryuichi ordered her to return to Japan so that she, who was pregnant (later to become Shuzo), could give birth in Japan. Okakura Tenshin was appointed as her escort. During the month-plus ship voyage from Washington to Japan, the two fell in love, which developed into a scandal that caused a stir in the world.

Shuzo, born into this love triangle, continued to harbor doubts about his own birth, believing that he was not Ryuichi's child but Tenshin's. His parents separated and later divorced. His mother was driven to the brink of mental breakdown, eventually meeting a tragic end.

The mental structure of the "ellipse"

In his autobiographical essay "Negishi," Kuki Shuzo recalls the situation at the time as follows:

"My mother suddenly had to go to Kyoto by herself. One night, Mr. Okakura looked back at me as I was leaning on my mother's lap and said in a solemn tone that he felt sorry for the child. It seemed that my father had made my mother live in Kyoto to separate her from Mr. Okakura. I later heard that Mrs. Okakura (Motoko) was jealous of my mother's relationship with Mr. Okakura. In any case, my mother went to Kyoto, and my brother and I were left for a while in the care of Mr. Kubota Kanae, who was the director of the Ueno Museum at the time. After that, my mother returned from Kyoto and again lived separately from my father in Tokyo. Soon after, my mother was divorced by my father..."

In psychoanalysis, the "paternal principle" is said to function as a principle of integration (superego) and the development of a child's mind. However, Shuzo had two fathers: his biological father, Kuki Ryuichi, and his spiritual father, Okakura Tenshin.

While a normal circle has one center, Shuzo's mind was like an oval with two foci. Unable to fully belong to either of his fathers, and torn apart from his sense of unity with his mother, he grew up with an unstable ego that orbited around two foci, lacking a center.

This "lack of centrality" and the sense of being at the mercy of fate became the foundation for his later "philosophy of chance."

3. Encounters and setbacks in youth

Shuzo, who went on to study at the Junior High School attached to Tokyo Higher Normal School (now the Junior and Senior High School attached to the University of Tsukuba), unexpectedly aspired to become a botanist and felt a deep affinity with Goethe's "Naturology." Goethe's approach of attempting to grasp the fundamental phenomena of nature through intuition, rather than a Newtonian mechanistic view of science ("gray science"), would later lead to his phenomenological approach.

In 1905, he entered the German Law Department of the First Higher School. His classmates included such future leading intellectuals of Japan as Amano Teisuke (philosopher), Watsuji Tetsuro (ethicist), Tanizaki Junichiro (novelist), and Iwashita Soichi (Catholic priest). It was here that he became interested in philosophy and literature.

Another decisive event was the unrequited love he had for his friend Soichi Iwashita's sister, Kiyo. She chose to become a Catholic nun, and Shuzo's love was shattered. This despair led him to be baptized as a Catholic in 1911. His baptismal name was "Franciscus Assisiensis Kuki Shuzo." Following in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi, the saint of poverty, he sought a way of life free from worldly values and possessions.

In 1909, he entered the Department of Philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied under Dr. Koebel, a foreign professor employed by the government. He graduated with a thesis titled "The Interrelationship of Matter and Mind," and went on to graduate school. In his personal life, he married his brother's widow, Nuiko, and began to establish a solid foundation for his life.

4. Study Abroad in Europe: Dialogue with World-renowned Philosophers

In 1921, Shuzo went to Europe with his wife to study, where he continued his studies for about eight years. His energy and ability to absorb information during this time was astonishing.

• University of Heidelberg, Germany: Studied under the Neo-Kantian Heinrich Rickert (1863-1936) and learned academic rigor.

• Paris: He met Henri Bergson (1859-1941). He came into contact with the philosophy of life and metaphysical intuition, and was liberated from Kantian formalism. There is also an anecdote that around this time he received private French lessons from a young Jean-Paul Sartre. He also wrote essays such as "Parisian Heartscape," showing his artistic side.

"The role that Bergson played in us was primarily to stimulate our desire for metaphysics. Our minds, so parched by the critical formalism of the German Neo-Kantians, welcomed the 'heavenly rain' of Bergson's metaphysical intuition." "Bergson in Japan"

• University of Freiburg, Germany: He studied phenomenology under Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and also met Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). He was deeply influenced by his book Being and Time.

In 1928, he participated in an international conference held at Pontigny Abbey in France, where he gave two lectures: "The Concept of Time and Its Repetition in the East" and "The Expression of Infinity in Japanese Art." These later became the basis for his book, "The Theory of Time."

During his time in Paris, he also completed the manuscript of "The Essence of 'Iki'." While studying the cutting edge of Western philosophy, he established his own unique approach to exploring the depths of Japanese culture.

5. His success after returning to Japan and his quiet end

In 1929, Kuki Shuzo returned to Japan aboard the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ship Shunyo Maru, where he taught Western philosophy as a professor at Kyoto Imperial University. He published a succession of important works that could be considered the fruits of his studies abroad.

1. The Structure of "Iki" (1930): A structural analysis of "iki," the aesthetic sense of the Edo brothels, from three points of view: coquetry, courage, and resignation.

2. The Problem of Chance (1935): A philosophical work that discusses the essence of chance by classifying the chances that permeate our lives into categorical chance, hypothetical chance, and disjunctive chance.

3. Man and Existence (1939): A collection of philosophical essays based on European existential philosophy learned from Heidegger and others, which logically explores Japanese literature, emotion, and the issue of "chance."

In 1941, Kuki Shuzo passed away at the young age of 53.

On his gravestone at Honen-in Temple in Kyoto, a passage from Goethe's poem "Night Song of the Traveler," which he loved in his youth, is inscribed in the handwriting of his ally, Nishida Kitaro.

View from the mountain top

No wind stirs in the treetops, no birds sing

Wait a little while, and soon you too will rest.

(Modern translation)

Peace on every mountain top

No wind can be felt in the treetops

The birds are silent in the forest

Just wait a while, it's almost here

Peace will come to you too

This poem seems to symbolize his life, which finally found eternal peace after a life full of turbulent fate, complicated family circumstances, and turbulent intellectual pursuits.

In the next issue, we will finally delve into the specific contents of his classic work, "The Structure of Iki," and analyze how he analyzed Japanese "iki."

Well, I'll see you in the next lecture.

This is a reading guide by Shoji Shimura (CEO of Atelier Shimura).
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