Nishitani Memoriam

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IN MEMORIAM

KeijiNishitani(1900-1990)It was in March1960, as a freshman at Kyoto University, hat I first met Profes-sorKeiji Nishitani. I had gone to him to discuss the possibility of studyingreli-gious philosophy underhis guidance as I had been intensely moved by his workGod and Absolute Nothingness at that time. I remember this first meetingwith him at Kyoto Universityas if it were just yesterday.At that time he cameinto the office noiselesslyand was moreoverdressed n a brown European-stylesuit. This was a piece of good luck for me becauseI had in fact decided to takemy leave fromhim without saying anything aboutmy wish to study in his semi-nar, for I had heard that there were no girl students in his seminar and thatalmost all his students were sons of Buddhist priests. Nishitani's Europeanclothes encouraged me greatly because I had felt sure that if he had beendressed n aJapanesekimono he would have been of a traditionalcharacter hatwould have been unwilling to take a female student in his class.Eventhough Iwas to see him in traditionalJapanese clothes many times thereafter, I havealwaysbeen thankful that I sawhim that first time dressed n an European uit.On meeting him, I let forth a barrageof questions I had about religiousphi-losophy. Owing to my youth, however,I could not speak directly to him abouthow profoundlyhis own religious philosophy had affected me; instead, I toldhim how much the writings of D. T. Suzuki had gripped me. After listen-ing carefully to everythingthat I had said, Nishitani replied, "Yourproblemand your consciousnessof it are the same as Kierkegaard's.You should re-searchKierkegaard horoughly."Then he spoke about my studying underhim.How kind he was And how quicklythese last thirty yearshave flown by.Exceptfor the eight years I studied abroad in Germany, he was always there toguide me.On 3 September 1991, I waspresentat his funeralat Ushizu in IshikawaPre-fecture where he was born. I had come to Ushizu by bus the day before fromUnoke, the birthplaceof the philosopherNishida, whereI and other membersof a societyfor the study of Nishida'sphilosophy-of which Nishitani was theleader-had participated n an internationalsymposium. The sea, mountains,rivers,and fields I saw from our bus wereso beautiful, deep, wide, and mysteri-ous that I could not help but get a betterand more profoundunderstandingofmy teacher'sphilosophyof religion.As we discussedphilosophy, being joggled by the bus on the mountain, wewould turn a corner,and the sea would come into view, only to be replacedmoments later by the mountains. A landscapeof mountains and the sea wereseen by turns. The sea was not the light and calm Pacific Ocean but the wildBuddhist-ChristianStudies 12(1992). ? by Universityof HawaiiPress.All rightsreserved.

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IN MEMORIAM 243philosophy, which does not deal with nature but rather sees it as historicalnature.

Nishitani's philosophy is called the philosophy of emptiness. He himselfbegan his philosophy with the problem of evil and nihil. With regardto thisproblem he wrote varioustheses about Schelling, and his onlyJapanese transla-tion of a foreign philosophicalwork is that of Schelling'sPhilosophischeUnter-suchungen iiber das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit (1927). After that heresearched undamental subjectivity through the study of Nietzsche and Eck-ehardtand wrote God and Absolute Nothingness and Nihilism from an inter-national standpoint but with special reference to the differences between Eastand West, namely, from the standpoint of emptiness. In 1961 he wrote hismain work, Religion and Nothingness (Shukyo to wa nani ka?) in which hisphilosophy was firmly established as the philosophy of emptiness.

The philosophy of emptiness in Nishitani includes in itself the logic of emp-tiness, which contains both "the logic of the place of absolute nothingness" ofhis teacher Kitaro Nishida and "the logic of species" and the philosophy ofmetanoetics of Hajime Tanabe, who was both a disciple and a criticof Nishi-da's. Nishitani's philosophy also debated "the principle of negation," whichwas imposed on posterity by Tanabethrough the elucidation of freedom, evil,and the issue of nihilism brought about by the extremedevelopment of naturalsciencein modern times.The philosophy of emptiness consists in emptiness as absolute opennesswhereall is as it is and at the same time as it should be. It encloses the domainsof philosophy, before philosophy, and after philosophy, including topics thatwereexcluded asoutside the realmsof philosophy by traditionalEuropeanphi-losophers since ancient Greek philosophy in that Nishitani inquires anew intowhatphilosophyis.We often hear criticismfrom a speculative position that emptiness concernsthe world of experienceor religious experiencebut is not a sphere of philoso-phy. However,we must see throughthis and understandthatNishitani'sdefini-tion of religionis real self-awareness f realityand that the philosophy of emp-tiness, founded on our own religious experience, is established on rebornthinking, namely,on the thinking of nonthinking. This is exactlythe philoso-phy that the philosophersafter Hegel look for.Nishitani stayed in Marburg, Germany, for two years from 1937 andresearchedphilosophy under Heidegger. The confrontation of the philosophyof emptiness with Heidegger's philosophy tacitly shownin Nishitani'sReligionand Nothingness-although both philosophers criticize philosophy as tradi-tional European metaphysics itself in that they return to its beginning-isbasedon Nishitani'sdeep understandingof Heidegger'sphilosophy.Nishitanigave many lectures n America and Europe andwas a guest profes-sor at Hamburg University n 1964 and at Temple University n 1969. He was,moreover, given the Goethe gold medal prize by the Goethe Institute of Ger-many.



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244 IN MEMORIAM

Calligraphy by ProfessorNishitani. Haiku on left was given to the author in April of 1986. Itmeans, "In the depths of frosty sky/ /A sound of an airplane."Signed with the name Boro Sanmin(mountaineerwho forgot the way). Verse on right wasgiven to the authorin October of 1986. Itmeans, "The moon falls from heaven/ /But it doesn't leave heaven."Signed with the name Keisei(the voiceof the valley).

Nishitani'sphilosophyof emptinesswasfirst introducedto the world in 1976through ProfessorHans Waldenfel'sAbsolute Nothingness (the Japaneseedi-tion was translatedby Y. Matsuyamaand E. Kawamura n 1986). We now alsohave an English and a German translationof Religion and Nothingness (theEnglish translation is by J. v. Bragt [1982] and the German by D. Fischer-Barnicol 1982]).A symposiumfocusing on Religion and Nothingness washeld at Smith andAmherst Colleges, in April 1984, with the support of the Japan Foundation.Essaysromthis symposiumand a few treatises ntroducingNishitani'sthinkingwerepublished as a bookwith the title TheReligiousPhilosophyofKeiji Nishi-tani (edited by T. Unno) in the autumn of 1990. As I gave him a brand newcopy of this book, which I had just receivedfrom ProfessorUnno by air mail,Nishitani wasvery pleasedand modestlysaid, "If this bookwerea recordof theworksof Daisetsu SuzukiI would understand,but of my work This is very flat-tering indeed." That was the last time I met ProfessorNishitani, and I shallneverforgetthat sceneat his home.Nishitani retiredfrom KyotoUniversityunder the age-limitrule in 1963 andsubsequentlyheld a position at Otani University,wherehe was the main editorof the university'sEnglishacademicmagazine TheEasternBuddhist. He madegreateffortsto understandboth the East and the West with regardto religion,philosophy, and the philosophy of religion, efforts evinced by the fact that hewas also an adviserof the "Kyoto Seminarfor Religious Philosophy" at theInstitute forZen Studies.



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IN MEMORIAM 245I often had the opportunity to walk with Nishitani-for example, in Ham-

burg, where I was researching ystematictheology under the guidance of Pro-fessor H. Thielicke at Hamburg Universityand Nishitani had stopped overonhis way backfrom Munich, wherehe had gone to collecthis Goethe prize. Suchopportunities also afforded themselves at Yoshida Mountain, where his homewas, at ArashiyamaMountain, where our Kyoto Seminarfor ReligiousPhiloso-phy was held, and at RakusaiNew-town, where I live. My abiding memoryofour walks is of Nishitani's love for nature-the mountains, rivers,and seas. Hecame to our Eighth InternationalZen Symposium in Arashiyamaonly at theend to greet the participantsand afterward tayedabout an hour in the gardenof the hotel where oursymposiumwasheld and on the banksof the Hozu Riverin the neighborhood, walking and standing, contemplating what he saw, witha great serenity.He looked unwilling to leave. Perhapsat that moment he saw,not only the garden of the hotel and the riverand mountains in front of him,but at the same time those of his birthplacein Ushizu, of the Schwarzwald,where he researched n Germany,and those of YoshidaMountain, at the foot ofwhich he lived until his last day in this world. That figure of contemplation isalso a memory that will remain with me forever.

EikoKawamura-HanokaUniversityof OsakaPrefecture


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