Abstract
Is there such a thing as a Buddhist philosophy, a specifically Japanese Buddhist philosophy? The question calls for a complex answer, involving a discussion of what is “Buddhist” and what is “philosophy.” If one were to answer “yes,” for the twentieth century, the Kyoto School of philosophy comes to mind. But for the most part, although the writings of the Kyoto School founder, NISHIDA Kitarō 西田幾多郎 (1870–1945), were replete with Buddhist inspired ideas, their Buddhist origins were not always made explicit until in his very last works. Nishida’s most famous disciple NISHITANI Keiji 西谷啓治 (1900–1990), on the other hand, never seemed to have any qualms about discussing certain elements in his thinking as Buddhist, in particular, Mahāyāna or Zen-inspired. Yet the issue is not a simple one and it would be reductive to identify Nishitani as nothing but a Buddhist thinker. He certainly was not sectarian or dogmatic in his use of Buddhist concepts, and he also proves himself to be a global thinker in his use of non-Buddhist, i.e., Christian or western ways of thinking. His major concern throughout his career was nihilism and modernity, and we see in his works the unfolding of a philosophical conversation between western philosophy, Christianity, and Buddhism in dealing with the issues of nihilism and modernity. In this essay, I begin with a short biographical introduction to Nishitani the philosopher. I then discuss his views on nihilism, and the various Mahāyāna Buddhist motifs he appropriates and employs in developing his own response to nihilism and the perennial questions of human existence. I also argue that his appropriation of Buddhist concepts in his response to nihilism leads him to what I call “anontology.”
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Notes
- 1.
Nishitani’s works will be identified as follows: Nishitani keiji chosakushū [Collected Works ofNishitaniKeiji] (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1987–1995) will be identified with a “C” followed by the volume number and page number/s. If there is an available English translation, the initials for the English title will follow with the page number/s: “On Modernization and Tradition” in Modernization and Tradition in Japan, edited by YASUSHI Kuyama and NOBUO Kobayashi, (Nishinomiya: International Institute for Japan Studies, 1969) = MT; On Buddhism (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2006) = OB; Religion and Nothingness (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982) = RN; Self-Overcoming of Nihilism (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1990) = SN; and “Science and Zen” in The Buddha Eye, edited by Frederick Franck (NY, NY: Crossroad, 1991, 1982) = SZ.
- 2.
They were translated together into English as The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism (SN).
- 3.
Translated into English as Religion and Nothingness (RN).
- 4.
Translated into English as On Buddhism (OB).
- 5.
See Parkes’ introduction to Nishitani’s Self-Overcoming of Nihilism (SN xviii, 194 n. 11).
- 6.
Nishida throughout his oeuvre understood this variously in terms of pure experience, pure intuition, self-awareness/realization, basho, the dialectical world, etc.
- 7.
See also Davis’s explanation of the double meaning involved in the Japanese graph for “being” (J. u 有) in his “The Step Back Through Nihilism” (Davis 2004a: 156). Aside from “being” or “exist,” it can also mean “possess.”
- 8.
On this double heteronomy, see Davis’ “The Step Back Through Nihilism” (Davis 2004a: 144).
- 9.
See Hase’s analysis of the distinction between modern and contemporary nihilism, the latter which involves this collapse of meaning within scientism itself, in his “Nihilism, Science, and Emptiness in Nishitani,” (Hase 1999: 150ff). He criticizes Nishitani for missing this distinction. However, although Nishitani may not have made the distinction explicit, we do find evidence in his works that he was aware of this self-undermining of science.
- 10.
Much later, in On Buddhism (J. Bukkyō nit suite), Nishitani levels a critique against Japanese Buddhism for having lost its grip on individual conscience and permitting its relevance to become relegated to mere social custom in activities like funerals (see C 17: 121; OB 24).
- 11.
This in fact is a development of his mentor Nishida’s own sense of self-awareness (J. jikaku 自覚).
- 12.
It is good to note here that the same graph for kū 空 can mean “empty” or “emptiness” as well as “sky.” “Kokū” thus can also mean “empty emptiness” in the sense of an “empty space” or void.
- 13.
“Gottheit” has been commonly translated in English as “godhead,” but “godhood” seems closer to its meaning.
- 14.
In German, “Bild” can mean “form” as well as “image.”
- 15.
See Paul’s letter to the Philippians in the New Testament 2:4ff.
- 16.
See also the translator’s comment in RN (304).
- 17.
On the idea of “stepping back” see Davis (2004a: 140, 142). Davis here also calls this “trans-descendence” a “radical re-gress.”
- 18.
See Masashi (2008: 177–178).
- 19.
He also states that “non-consciousness” (J. hiishiki 非意識) is at the base of all “consciousness” (J. ishiki 意識) (C10 173, RN 153).
- 20.
And this is where Nishitani’s topological scheme that regards the field of being and the field of consciousness to be identical diverges from Nishida’s scheme that separated the place of being and the place of relative nothing (equated with the field of consciousness).
- 21.
As in Angleus Silesius’ versification of Meister Eckhart’s ideal: “The rose is without ‘why’; she blooms, because she blooms…” (“Die Rose ist ohne warum; sie blūhet, weil sie blūhet” [Silesius 1895: 69]).
- 22.
The Japanese word for “absolute,” zettai, literally means “severing from,” or “cutting off” (J. zetsu 絶), “opposition” (J. tai 対).
- 23.
This concept was borrowed from Daoism and incorporated into Chinese Chan.
- 24.
This motif evidently becomes furthered in his later works of the late 1970s and 1980s, as a pattern of a transcendence connected to the “earth” or “land” (J. tsuchi 土), with the idea that the “Kingdom of God” (J. kami no kuni 神の国) or Heaven or the “Pure Land” (J. jōdo 浄土) is already here and now (see C 17: 246–27; OB 124–125; OB 14).
Works Cited
Abbreviations
C Nishitani keiji chosakushū 『西谷啓治著作集』 [Collected Works of Nishitani Keiji]. Tokyo: Sōbunsha 1987–1995.
MT Nishitani, Keiji 西谷啓治. On Modernization and Tradition in Japan. In Modernization and Tradition in Japan, edited by Nobuo Kobayashi and Yasushi Kuyama, 69–96. Nishinomiya: International Institute for Japan Studies, 1969.
OB Nishitani, Keiji 西谷啓治. On Buddhism. Translated by Seisaku Yamamoto and Robert E. Carter. Albany: SUNY Press, 2006.
RN Nishitani, Keiji 西谷啓治. Religion and Nothingness. Translated by Jan Van Bragt. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
SN Nishitani, Keiji 西谷啓治. Self-Overcoming of Nihilism. Translated by Graham Parkes and Setsuko Aihara. Albany: SUNY, 1990.
SZ Nishitani, Keiji 西谷啓治. Science and Zen. In The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School, edited by Frederick Franck, 111–137. New York: Crossroad, 1991.
Other Sources
Abe, Masao. 1990. Nishitani’s Challenge to Philosophy and Theology. In The Religious Philosophy of Nishitani Keiji, ed. Taitetsu Unno, 13–45. Fremont: Asian Humanities Press.
Davis, Bret W. 2004a. The Step Back Through Nihilism: The Radical Orientation of Nishitani Keiji’s Philosphy of Zen. Synthesis Philosophica 19 (1): 139–159.
———. 2004b. Zen After Zarathustra: The Problem of the Will in the Confrontation Between Nietzsche and Buddhism. Journal of Nietzsche Studies 28: 89–138.
Hase, Shoto. 1999. Nihilism, Science, and Emptiness in Nishitani. Buddhist-Christian Studies 19 (1): 139–154.
Heisig, James W. 2001. Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School. Honolulu: University of Hawaii.
Kasulis, Thomas P. 1990. Whence and Wither: Nishitani’s View of History. In The Religious Philosophy of Nishitani Keiji, ed. Taitetsu Unno, 259–278. Fremont: Asian Humanities Press.
Masashi, Hosoya. 2008. Sensation and Image in Nishitani’s Philosophy. In Neglected Themes & Hidden Variations, ed. Victor Sōgen Hori and Melissa Anee-Marie Curley, 177–200. Nagoya: Nanzan Institute.
Silesius, Angelus. 1895. Der Cherubinische Wandersmann. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Unno, Taitetsu. 1990. Emptiness and Reality. In The Religious Philosophy of Nishitani Keiji, ed. Taitetsu Unno, 307–320. Fremont: Asian Humanities Press.
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Krummel, J.W.M. (2019). Nishitani Keiji: Nihilism, Buddhism, Anontology. In: Kopf, G. (eds) The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2924-9_29
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