This paper discusses the role that the Kyoto School played in prewar debates on Japanese subjectivity and Japan’s global role. The focus is on the school’s founder, Nishida Kitarō’s (1870-1945) work, and its interpretation in wider intellectual debates. Nishida rarely wrote on Buddhist philosophy and can be called a “Buddhist thinker” only with strong caveats. Nevertheless, we may view his philosophy as expressing Buddhist insight through a framework of Western philosophy in an effort to reach universality. Despite his intentions, Nishida’s efforts came to be received, within wider Japanese intellectual discourse, as an exemplary of Japanese particularity that was on par or beyond what was seen as “Western”. The approach of this paper considers the discursive context of Nishida’s later work as a central motivation for its concerns and its reception, considering what his philosophical position was articulated in dialogue with and how it reflected the wider discourse it participated in.

Peer reviewed