Miki Kiyoshi 1897–1945 Brill’s Japanese Studies Library Edited by Joshua Mostow (Managing Editor) Chris Goto-Jones Caroline Rose Kate Wildman-Nakai VOLUME 32 Miki Kiyoshi 1897–1945 Japan’s Itinerant Philosopher By Susan C. Townsend LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: bronze plaque on Miki Kiyoshi’s memorial monument in Tatsuno Park, Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Photo taken by Paul Bracken. Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Townsend, Susan C. Miki Kiyoshi, 1897–1945 : Japan’s itinerant philosopher / by Susan C. Townsend. p. cm. — (Brill’s Japanese studies library, ISSN 0925-6512 ; v. 32) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17582-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Miki, Kiyoshi, 1897–1945. 2. Philosophers—Japan—Biography. I. Title. II. Series. B5244.M544T68 2009 181’.12—dc22 2009009618 ISSN 0925-6512 ISBN 978 90 04 17582 2 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands For Paul, gift ed pianist, singer and scholar, with love CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................ ix Introduction Notes on a life ......................................................... 1 PART ONE WANDERINGS THROUGH THE WORLD OF BOOKS Chapter One Given up to Nature and to books ..................... 21 Chapter Two Wanderings in the wood of human knowledge ............................................................. 49 Chapter Th ree Wanderings in the springtime of life ................ 79 Chapter Four Miki’s Wanderjahre .............................................. 115 PART TWO WANDERINGS THROUGH THE WORLD OF THOUGHT Chapter Five A study of man: Late 1925 to Early 1932 ........ 143 Chapter Six A study of man in crisis: Late 1932–1935 ....... 179 Chapter Seven A study of man in action: 1936–1940 .............. 209 Aft erword: Notes on a death ............................................................ 241 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 253 Index .................................................................................................... 265 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although this book is dedicated to my husband Paul, it is also a memorial to friends and relatives lost in the last few years. First of all, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the late Mino Masahiro who so kindly sent me, out of the blue, Miki Kiyoshi’s nineteen-volume Complete Works. I also acknowledge the kindness of his widow Michiyo. Th is book is also a ‘monument’ in words to my grandmother Kathleen “Daisy” Griffi n and stepfather Len McDonald who both died in spring, 2006. I was delighted when my widowed mother Margaret, who had never fl own further than Jersey before, was able to go to Japan with me in April 2008 and share my love of that country and its people, at her expense I might add. Th is book was initially vaguely conceived as a sequel to my mono- graph on Yanaihara Tadao which was subtitled “Redeeming Empire”. It was to be subtitled “Idealising Empire” and set out to investigate Japanese ideas about a civilizing mission in Asia. However, Miki Kiyoshi presented such an interesting challenge to understanding what motivates a person, especially in contrast to Yanaihara, that I ended up writing an intellectual biography. I wish to thank, therefore, the British Acad- emy for funding me on the basis of my initial proposal and hope that they won’t be too disappointed with a rather diff erent outcome and the long wait. My British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship was taken at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge (1996–99) and once again I extend my gratitude to Stephen Large. I also wish to thank Anne Lonsdale who has just retired from what was then New Hall and is now Murray Edwards College, Cambridge for her continued support and encouragement in my career. Other much needed funding came from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Research Leave Scheme in 2003. I would also like to acknowledge the continued sup- port and friendship of Gordon Daniels, Ian Kershaw, Beverley Eaton and Helen Grindley in Sheffi eld. My research was fi nally completed with the aid of a visiting pro- fessorship to Nagoya City University in 2004–5 and I am immensely grateful to Saho Matsumoto and Anthony Best for extending an invita- tion and welcoming me (and my husband Paul) to that wonderful city. x acknowledgements Also in Nagoya I wish to thank Hiroaki Ishikawa, Tsuchiya Masahiko, Kato Itsumi and all the staff who made our stay so pleasurable. Special thanks to Rumi and her customers at Yakuzen restaurant where every Wednesday Paul played jazz on the piano. Th anks must also go to my dear friend Kei Imai who treated us to a memorable lunch in Tokyo during our stay at International House. In Tokyo I was very pleased to be able meet and talk with Uchida Hiroshi, who had just published his biography of Miki. I am grateful also to Shoji Muramoto for his advice about translating Miki’s poetry. I owe another huge debt to Christopher Goto-Jones for his intellec- tual generosity and our many conversations about Miki and the Kyoto School. In particular, he organised a workshop in Leiden in November 2006 to discuss an article on Miki and the Showa Research Association which helped me enormously. Th anks also to Richard Calichman and all those who attended and contributed to the discussion and to Rikki Kersten and Nozomi Goto for their hospitality during my several visits to Leiden. I found the key to unlocking Miki’s personality, however, in the library of Nagoya City University when I came across, quite by accident, Dan McAdams’ Power, Intimacy and the Life Story: Personological Inquiries into Identity. I am immensely grateful to him for reading through the manuscript and recommending a better balance between history and psychology (more history and less psychology) which greatly improved the book. Th anks also to Pat Bracken for help with the French sources and to Elaine Wilson for proof reading and commenting on an earlier manuscript. I am grateful to Albert Hoff städt of E. J. Brill for waiting so patiently for the fi nal draft and to the anonymous reader for his (or her) kind comments. Here in Nottingham, thanks are due to my special subject students who, over the years, have coped with my enthusiasm for various “dead Japanese philosophers” by rising to the challenge and enriching my experience of teaching. To my colleagues, Mathilde von Bulow, Sheryl- lynne Haggerty and Liudmyla Sharipova, a heartfelt thanks for their friendship and support, oft en in the wine bar. Finally, love and thanks to my husband Paul Bracken, for the lovely photographs of Miki’s monument used in this book, and for his “nit- picking editorial skills” which improved the standard of the manuscript immeasurably. INTRODUCTION NOTES ON A LIFE According to my notion, he who would write a book does well to think a good deal about the subject on which he would write. Neither would he do ill to form acquaintance, so far as possible, with what has previously been written on the same subject. Søren Kierkegaard Th e Concept of Dread Giving an accurate account of my past life is important and whether or not I commit it to paper is, aft er all, a subordinate concern. It is not so much that I expect to do a good job, but that I prepare correctly for it. Nor is it about arriving at an end result, but rather it is about setting out on the path to a solution. Miki Kiyoshi Th e Unspoken Philosophy On 28 December 2004 I walked with my husband through Tatsuno Koen, a memorial park in Hyogo Prefecture dedicated to celebrat- ing the achievements of some of Japan’s modern literary fi gures. We were searching for the monument to Miki Kiyoshi and this was, by sheer coincidence, the 108th anniversary of his birth. We had been misdirected by the taxi driver to the monument of another Miki, Miki Rofu (189–1964) a well-known poet, on the other side of the park, but eventually we found Kiyoshi’s memorial situated high on the hillside beside a quiet mountain path. On a rise above the little collection of stones and plaques is a granite obelisk engraved with the words ‘Miki Kiyoshi’s Philosophical Monument’ (Miki Kiyoshi no tetsugakuhi). As we cleared away the debris of leaves and twigs to read the various inscriptions commissioned by local citizens in 1964, I refl ected on the forgetfulness of the taxi driver, the loneliness of the mountain side and the signs of benign neglect surrounding the site. It seemed to me on that bleak winter day that these things spoke most eloquently of the waxing and waning of Miki Kiyoshi’s reputation in the post-war period. A wooden notice placed at the foot of the steps leading to the monu- ment informs us that Kiyoshi was born in Kogami, near what is now Issai-mura on 5 January 1987.1 However, although this is the date 1 Th e village of Issai-mura was formerly known as Hirai-mura. “Nempyō” (Chrono- logical Record) in Miki Kiyoshi Zenshū (Th e complete works of Miki Kiyoshi) ed. 2 introduction recorded in the family register, his actual date of birth was 28 December 1896.2 Th e hillside on which we stood overlooks the broad valley of the Iho River where Miki spent his childhood and youth.