Japanese Philosophy

The term philosophy was translated in Japanese as "tetsugaku". According to Michiko Yusa,

The Japanese word "tetsugaku" was coined by Nishi Amane (1829-97), who, even before the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate rule (1603-1867), was dispatched to the University of Leyden in 1863, where he studied philosophy. (Yusa,"the Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy", Introduction, P.2)

Generally speaking, according to Brian Bocking,

'Japanese philosophy' can be understood in a narrow sense as intellectual analysis conducted by particular Japanese philosophers, and in a much broader sense as worldviews or approaches to life which are characteristic of the Japanese people and which have provided the context and motivation for philosophical and other intellectual endeavors in Japan. (Brian Bocking, 'the Origins of Japanese Philosophy' p.641)

Michiko Yusa introduces a detailed description of these two positions as follows,

With a bold stroke, the diverse views concerning Japanese philosophy presented above can be grouped into two. The first is what may be called an "import" theory, which upholds that philosophy is a Western discipline (or Greek origin) and that it did not exist in Japan prior to its introduction in the 1860s by Nishi Amane et al. The second is a non-Eurocentric view that considers a philosophical tradition to exist in all cultures of the world, based on the assumption that there is philosophy where a people have nurtured their own worldviews and grappled with the meaning of life. According to this latter position, which may be called an "indigenous" view of philosophy, diverse philosophical traditions have been in existence everywhere, and in Japan at least since the seventh century, philosophical ideas have been formed under the nurturing influences of Buddhism, Confucianism, philosophical Daoism, Legalism, and a native Japanese sensitivity to natural, cultural, aesthetic, and ethical elements (a sensitivity that may be called the tradition of "proto-Shinto" or "ko-shinto"). According to this view, the introduction of the Western philosophical discipline in the nineteenth century shed new light on the wealth of existent indigenous philosophical thoughts, and critically brought out their relevance—and sometimes even formed a deeper backdrop for a new philosophical approach.
Both views ("import or indigenous"), Yusa continues, recognize that the intercultural philosophical encounter that has been taking place since the nineteenth century in Japan has certainly enriched modern Japanese philosophical tradition. Most importantly, this encounter of East and West gave rise to a new style of philosophical inquiry and discourse, under the influence of Western philosophical vocabulary and analytical method, which were applied to the explication of traditional Eastern worldviews. Let me comment here that this kind of creative intercultural philosophical exchanges have been taking place on a global scale, and the pace appears to be accelerating. In fact, intercultural or cross-cultural enrichment has been taking place in diverse philosophical circles for several decades now. (Yusa, Introduction ,"The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy", P.5)

In addition, Yusa points out that,

Among those who upheld the second view, namely, that philosophy is indigenous to each culture, Nishida Kitaro stands out as the first articulate proponent of this view. His writings are the testimony of philosophizing that was taking place in Japan, and give us the view of Japanese philosophy "from within".
Nishida believed that each culture was unique and had its place in the world; he thus maintained that the cultures of the world can take different courses of development from those in Europe, and therefore to apply the way European cultures developed as the sole standard to measure the "maturity" of other non-European cultures and assign their place in the scale of "evolutionary development" was to miss the point. Accordingly, Nishida's understanding of philosophy departed from considering the European model as the only one. His stance was fundamentally pluralistic. He understood philosophy to begin "with the historical life coming to its own self-awareness, which co-arises with one's existential endeavor to live one's life truly authentically." As for the philosophical method, Nishida defined it simply as "jikakuteki bunseki," which is ambiguous enough to be read to mean both (1) the "analysis accompanied by critical self-awareness," and (2) the "analysis of self- consciousness." In the former sense, it is to grapple with a philosophical problem on one's own, and think it through, until the problem becomes clear. In the latter sense, it summarized Nishida’s entire philosophical enterprise—to start out with the investigation of the phenomena of consciousness. (Yusa, Introduction, "The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy", P.7)

Similarly, John Maraldo confirms Yusa's picture as follows,

The appellation 'Japanese philosophy' is problematic in several senses. Many philosophers regard philosophy as a Western discipline imported into Japan a little over a century ago, and to this day restrict the term to investigations whose theme or method originates in the Western tradition. 'Japanese philosophy' in that case simply means Western philosophy as it is pursued in Japan. Others may apply the term to philosophically informed enquiries into pre-modern ('pre-philosophical') Japanese traditions. And some use the term to refer to pre-modern Japanese Confucianism, Buddhism, or other schools of thought; or again to contemporary treatises inspired by Eastern as well as Western sources. In the latter cases, the question arises as to what is 'Japanese' about past or contemporary thinking in Japan. In the former usage, which restricts 'philosophy' to an originally Western discipline, a similar question is raised about what is original in the work of philosophers in Japan; but the more important problem is the purported universality of a method of enquiry with Greek origins. (John C. Maraldo, 'Contemporary Japanese Philosophy', p.737).

Given the above picture, Bert Davis suggests that,

We call Japanese philosophy any rigorous reflection on fundamental questions that draws sufficiently and significantly on the intellectual, linguistic, cultural, religious, literary, and artistic sources of the Japanese tradition. Japanese philosophy is thus mainly only a subset of philosophy done in Japan since much of the philosophizing done in Japan today does not sufficiently or significantly draw on these sources, albeit precisely what counts as "sufficient and significant" should remain open for debate, just as should the parameters of what counts as part of the Japanese tradition. (Bert Davis, "Introduction-the Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy").

works Cited

Bocking, Brian. 1977. 'the Origins of Japanese Philosophy' in. Brian Carr and Indira Mahalingam (eds.) "Companion encyclopedia of Asian philosophy", p.641-659.

Davis, Bert (Ed.). 2020. "Introduction-the Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy".

Marlado, John C. 1977. 'Contemporary Japanese Philosophy', in Brian Carr and Indira Mahalingam (eds.) "Companion encyclopedia of Asian philosophy" , p.737-759.

Yusa, Michiko. 2017. "The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy", Introduction, p.1-20.

Internet Resources

The International Association of Japanese Philosophy
European Network of Japanese Philosophy

Readings
Introduction - Contemporary Japanese Philosophy - Michiko Yusa
What Is Japanese Philosophy - Bret Davis
Edited By: Samir Abuzaid

1- What is Japanese Philosophy

works Cited

Internet Resources

Readings

Edited By: Samir Abuzaid