Kuki Shūzō
A culture’s taste, like the stylish detachment of old Edo, can be analysed philosophically – and chance, not necessity, is at the heart of existence.
Placement
Studied with Rickert, Husserl and Heidegger and met Bergson: analysed iki, the refined chic of Edo culture, and wrote a metaphysics of contingency.
Key ideas
- The structure of iki
- Contingency
- Hermeneutics of culture
Influence
Influenced by 2
Henri Bergson
influenced by
Kuki came to know Bergson personally in Paris and in ‘Bergson au Japon’ (1928) described how Bergson’s philosophy of intuition had been received in Japan. Kuki Shūzō, “Bergson au Japon”, Les Nouvelles littéraires, 15 Dec. 1928; S. Light, Shūzō Kuki and Jean-Paul Sartre (1987)
Evidence: AI draft
Henri Bergson › 1859–1941
Martin Heidegger
influenced by
Kuki studied with Heidegger in the late 1920s and analysed iki hermeneutically, as the self-expression of a people’s way of being (The Structure of Iki, 1930). Kuki Shūzō, “Iki” no kōzō (1930); M. Heidegger, “Aus einem Gespräch von der Sprache”, in Unterwegs zur Sprache (1959)
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976
Works
A hermeneutic analysis of iki – urbane, coquettish detachment in Edo culture – as a lived mode of being of a people.
Position
The Structure of Iki analyses a key word of Edo-period urban culture, especially of the pleasure quarters: iki is a refined erotic allure tempered by proud bravado and resignation, visible in colours, patterns, gestures and architecture. With a hermeneutic method shaped by Heidegger, Kuki read it as the self-expression of the Japanese people’s mode of being, untranslatable into European concepts – a claim now often criticised as cultural essentialism. His systematic work The Problem of Contingency distinguishes logical, empirical and metaphysical contingency; at its core lies the chance encounter of two independent beings. Heidegger later recalled their conversations in his “Dialogue on Language”.
Life & context
Kuki Shūzō was born in 1888 in Tokyo, the son of Baron Kuki Ryūichi, a senior official; his mother’s liaison with the art critic Okakura Kakuzō overshadowed his childhood. He studied philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University. From 1921 to 1929 he lived in Europe, hearing Rickert, Husserl and Heidegger and meeting Bergson in Paris. He then taught at Kyoto Imperial University until his death in 1941.
Further main works
- Propos sur le temps (1928)
- The Problem of Contingency (Gūzensei no mondai, 1935)
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