Japanese philosophyintellectual discourse developed by Japanese thinkers, the conceptual expression of Japanese culture since the turn of the 6th century Ad. The term philosophy has been considered somewhat misleading in reference to Japanese thought, since Japanese premodern thinking tended to be directed more toward the realm of existence than toward that of essence. Japanese philosophy is not generally indigenous; Japanese thinkers have always freely appropriated foreign philosophical systems and insights to express their own understanding of the meaning of life and the world. The Japanese have skillfully assimilated alien philosophical categories in developing their own systems.

Historically, before the Meiji period (beginning in 1868), one of the two principal schools of Japanese thought arose from Buddhism and was highly tinged with a religious and often somewhat metaphysical character; the second school arose from Confucianism and was essentially a system of moral philosophy. From the 18th century on, there were some independent thinkers who were critical of these two major schools, but their ideas were limited to a small circle, and they left little influence.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Western philosophy has been liberally and abundantly introduced into Japan. At first, British and American philosophies predominated; but in the course of the 20th century the influence of German philosophy became increasingly strong. Leading Japanese philosophers were especially influenced by German idealism, phenomenology, and existentialism. By the end of the century, philosophy in the Western sense of the term was taught as a compulsory subject in most Japanese colleges and universities; and Eastern thought, under the name of Indian or Chinese philosophy, was relegated to specialized courses. In order to distinguish Western philosophy from Buddhist and Chinese thought, a new term, tetsugaku (“wise learning”), was coined and has come into common usescholars, and political and religious leaders who creatively combined indigenous philosophical and religious traditions with key concepts adopted and assimilated from nonnative traditions—first from greater East Asia and then from western Europe and the United States—beginning about the 7th century CE.

Like their Western counterparts, Japanese philosophers have pursued answers to questions about knowledge (epistemology), moral action (ethics), the relationship between art and beauty (aesthetics), and the nature of reality (metaphysics). The distinction between them lies in their different assumptions about how to approach answers to such questions. Western philosophers posit a pair of opposites—mind and matter, self and other, artist and medium, reality and appearance—and seek to bridge the distance between them. Japanese philosophers, by contrast, strive to understand the ways in which such apparent opposites overlap. The result is that Japanese philosophy does not address independent substances or entities; rather, it foregrounds interdependent processes and complexes that include apparent opposites.

The evolution of Japanese philosophy may be traced through five periods: ancient, classical, medieval, early modern, and modern.

The ancient period

The ancient period, spanning the 7th through 9th centuries CE, was an age of Sinicization and state organization. Two major intellectual systems—Confucianism and Buddhism—were imported from Korea and China. Whereas Confucianism addressed the “social self,” influencing government structure and patterns of formal behaviour, Buddhism provided psychological insight into the workings of the inner self. Through introspection and the disciplined practice of self-cultivation, Buddhist adherents sought to develop both charismatic power for wonderwork and creative resources for artistic expression. Confucianism and Buddhism coexisted with indigenous myths that emphasized both the divine origin of the imperial line and a native animism that stressed the mutual responsiveness between people and nature. Some of these indigenous ideas and values became important to the tradition later called Shintō.

The early philosophizing of the ancient period was aimed primarily at assimilating and classifying ideas and practices imported from the Asian mainland. As reflected in the Seventeen Article Constitution (604), a code of moral precepts for the ruling class enacted by the crown prince and regent Shōtoku Taishi, the goal of philosophy as well as government was harmony, rather than competition or separation, between the traditions. Buddhism more thoroughly penetrated the culture in the 7th and 8th centuries, and several of its key themes had an enduring impact on the Japanese worldview. Such Buddhist notions as dependent co-origination, emptiness, impermanence, and the insubstantiality of the self inspired a vision of the universe as an ever-emerging, dynamic process and an understanding of the self as interdependent with the social and natural worlds rather than independent of them. Philosophers influenced by Buddhist concepts also posited the limitations of words or concepts to represent reality perfectly and emphasized the role of mind in constructing reality.

The classical period

The classical period began about the early 9th century, during the Heian period (794–1185), and ended in the late 12th century. This was an era of systemization and Japanization of philosophy. Through the writings and efforts of such thinkers as Kūkai (774–835) and Saichō (767–822), the Shingon and Tendai Buddhist schools constructed sophisticated systems of doctrine and practice. The dominant philosophical esotericism promoted by these Buddhist thinkers contributed at least two ideas that would have a lasting impact on Japanese thought. The first was the belief that every phenomenon was an expression of the activity of the cosmos, which itself was identified with a buddha (enlightened one) known as Dainichi Nyorai. The whole cosmos is, therefore, fully expressed in every phenomenon. Second, classical Japanese Buddhism maintained that enlightenment, the insight into how things really are, could not be attained merely conceptually but was an act of the full complex of mind, body, and spirit as transformed through ritual practice. Insight in this tradition was thus an incarnate activity as well as an intellectual function.

A distinctive aesthetic emerged in conjunction with these metaphysical and epistemological perspectives. No longer wishing merely to mirror the glory of the Chinese court, Japanese aristocrats developed their own aesthetic themes. Such themes as elegance (miyabi) and the charming (okashi) reflected a distinctively Japanese sense of courtly refinement. Others drew directly on Buddhist sensitivities to impermanence (mujō) and ontological depth or mystery (yōgen). Further, values such as poignancy (mono no aware) and sensitivity (ushin) were blended with ancient animistic sympathies with natural phenomena.

The medieval period

The medieval phase of Japanese philosophy extended from the late 12th century through the 16th century, an era of social and political upheaval. With the dissolution of the aristocracy’s power and the rise of the samurai class to political and military dominance, the court life so central to the classical period lost its allure. Facing recurrent warfare and an unusual series of natural disasters, many Japanese lost interest in the cosmic visions of Shingon and Tendai. They hoped instead for a religious philosophy directed toward leading a peaceful everyday life in what had become an increasingly turbulent world. Buddhist splinter groups (e.g., Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren) took root outside established institutions.

During the Kamakura period (1185–1333)—when feudalism, the shogunate (military dictatorship), and the samurai warrior class were established in Japan—new Buddhist schools coalesced around a series of thinkers that included Hōnen (1133–1212), Shinran (1173–1263), Dōgen (1200–53), and Nichiren (1222–82). Hōnen and Shinran, the founders of the two main Pure Land forms of Japanese Buddhism, analyzed human weakness and the need for trusting in the redemptive power of Amida Buddha, the buddha of light who promised rebirth in the Pure Land to the faithful. Dōgen used Zen meditation as a means of analyzing philosophical problems related to consciousness and the self. Nichiren extolled the power of devotion to the Lotus Sutra and its ideal of the bodhisattva, or “buddha-to-be.” In support of that practice he elaborated a philosophy of history and a critique of other Buddhist schools.

Despite their differences, the Kamakura philosophers shared a concern for simplifying Buddhist practice and making it accessible to laypersons of all classes. Even today most Japanese Buddhists practice forms of religious life developed in the Kamakura period. The philosophies of those thinkers also continue to influence many Japanese cultural assumptions. Zen brought a focus on discipline not as a means to enlightenment but as an end in itself, whereas Pure Land critiques of spiritual self-reliance reinforced a mistrust of the conception of the self as an isolated ego. Japanese aesthetic theories continued to develop in the medieval period and increasingly reflected Buddhist themes of detachment, strict praxis, and celebration of the everyday. During medieval times, Shintō thought and practice were substantially absorbed into the Buddhist religious hegemony. There was little critical development of Confucian philosophy during this period.

The early modern period

The early modern period of Japanese philosophy corresponds roughly to the Edo, or Tokugawa, shogunate (1603–1868), whose highly efficient rule enforced relative peace and stability. Confucian ideas, which had been utilized in the ancient period to centralize and unify the state, again became a focus of study and application. With political stability and urbanization, the power of the merchant class increased, literacy rose, and secular academies sprang up in the major cities to tutor merchants in the Chinese classics. During peacetime, some samurai took up scholarly pursuits and used the newly developed Bushidō (“Code of the Warrior”) to express ideals of loyalty, stoic self-control, and personal virtue. These ideals were consistent, respectively, with Confucian propriety, Buddhist self-discipline, and Shintō purity of heart.

Tokugawa Confucian thinkers can be divided, according to their source of inspiration, into two groups. The first group built upon the neo-Confucian philosophies of Chinese thinkers from the Song and Ming dynasties, respectively exemplified by Zhu Xi (Japanese: Shushi; 1130–1200) and Wang Yangming (Ōyōmei; 1472–1529). This group included Japanese philosophers such as Hayashi Razan (1583–1657) and Nakae Tōju (1608–48), who promoted the works of Zhu and Wang, respectively. Other thinkers in this group believed that the dominant forms of neo-Confucianism in Japan were too abstract in their emphasis on metaphysical “principle” (ri) as the structuring force of the universe. Kaibara Ekken (1630–1714), for example, tried to make neo-Confucianism more practical by developing a naturalistic philosophy that emphasized vital force (ki) rather than principle and by devising concrete guidelines for everyday life.

The other major group of Confucians founded a tradition that is often referred to as the school of “ancient learning” (kogaku). Such thinkers as Itō Jinsai (1627–1705) and Ōgyū Sorai (1666–1728) believed that the theories of metaphysical principle and vital force deviated too far from the thought of Confucius, who was primarily concerned with the education of humane scholars and officials who would promote good government. Thus, the kogaku scholars wished to return to the “original Confucianism” of the Chinese classics, which avoided metaphysical speculation and emphasized the basic virtues and relationships fundamental to social harmony.

In opposition to Confucianism and Bushidō, there arose a philosophical school called kokugaku, the “study of our national heritage.” It was led by such thinkers as Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), who urged a return to the “ancient ways,” the restoration of Shintō, renewed reverence for the emperor, and a Heian-period aesthetic exemplified by mono no aware, a “sensitivity to” or “sympathy for” the things that constitute the world. Despite their many differences, most early modern Japanese philosophers were alike in turning away from the classical period’s interest in the cosmic order and from the medieval period’s interest in personal spirituality. Instead, they focused primarily on the social and political dimensions of human life.

Modern and contemporary Japanese philosophy

The modern period of Japanese philosophy began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the subsequent opening of Japan to Western influences, including Western philosophy. In fact, a new word, tetsugaku—from the words for wisdom (tetsu) and learning (gaku)—was coined to translate the Western term philosophy. Although tetsugaku was initially restricted to scholarly reflection on Western philosophy to the exclusion of Japanese philosophy, it soon encompassed a broader range of studies. An Inquiry into the Good (1911), by Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), was the first major work to construct a new philosophical system in the Western style. As his thought evolved in later works, Nishida focused on the experiential and logical grounds of judgment and action, which he called “Nothingness” (mu). Nishida’s philosophy drew upon both Western and East Asian (especially Zen) ideas. For example, his concern with “pure experience” came from the Western thought of the American pragmatist philosopher William James, while the term Nothingness came from Buddhism.

Nishida’s new style of philosophizing was the inspiration for the Kyōto school, 20th-century Japan’s most influential philosophical movement. The Kyōto school set the stage for a distinctly Japanese philosophical discourse by exploring affinities and differences between Western philosophical traditions and the East Asian philosophies and religions that had been foundational to Japanese life since the classical period. For example, the metaphysical speculations of Nishitani Keiji (1900–90) further explored the nature of Nothingness, integrating insights from both Zen Buddhism (following Nishida) and the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, under whom Nishitani studied. Other Japanese philosophers, both within and outside the Kyōto school, began to draw more explicitly on Japanese cultural traditions as a resource for developing their own philosophies. An influential example of this trend is the work of Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960), who criticized both Western individualism and Confucian collectivism, positing instead an ethical notion of “betweenness.” According to Watsuji, each person stands in dialectical tension between the ideal of individual freedom and socially imposed norms. The wellspring of ethics, then, is the recognition that personhood is articulated amid this continuous opposition between self and society rather than through an unbalanced focus on one or the other.

The end of World War II brought greater freedom of thought and expression to Japanese society, liberating Japanese philosophers from the context of wartime ideologies (which some had endorsed, others had opposed, and others had tried to ignore). The postwar period also stimulated philosophical reflection upon the role that philosophy had played in the rise of ultranationalism and militarism. The later work of Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962), the most prominent member after Nishida of the Kyōto school, provides a prime example of the fruits of such reflection. In the 1930s Tanabe argued that most traditional philosophical schemes that attempted to explain the relation between the universal (or “genus”) and the particular (or “individual”) had excluded the role of the specific (or “species”). In defining human existence, for example, they had emphasized a person’s universal human nature and atomistic individuality but had virtually ignored the crucial dimension of identity that specifies a person as an ethnic, national, and cultural being. Tanabe’s arguments for “the logic of the specific” were subsequently invoked to support Japanese nationalism because they seemed to prioritize the interests of the Japanese nation over those of the individual and humankind at large. By the end of the war, Tanabe had rejected this use of his ideas and had developed the theory of “metanoia” (zange)—repentance or change of heart. Because no intellectual system can ever be universal or absolute, he argued, every responsible philosophy contains a metanoetic dynamic that serves to undermine any tendency to treat it as such.

Academic philosophy continues to thrive in Japan. While some philosophers have stayed within the parameters demarcated by Western philosophy, others have developed philosophies out of traditional Asian ideas. The latter group includes modern Buddhist philosophers such as Tamaki Kōshirō (1915–99) and Nakamura Hajime (1911–99). Still others continue to engage other traditions—Western and Asian—in hopes of developing philosophical insights suitable to a global, and not merely monocultural, perspective. These philosophers include Yuasa Yasuo (1925–2005) and Ueda Shizuteru (born 1926), a thinker who upholds the Kyōto school tradition.