Paper short abstract:

The paper opens a new historical trajectory of modernity by introducing what the author argues as "queer nature," a basis of truth for the meaning of civilisation. Queer nature emerged in the life and work of the naturalist Minakata Kumagusu who practised microbiology through Buddhist epistemology.

Paper long abstract:

In modernity, the nature of civilisation depended on how one understood human nature comparable to the nature of the universe discovered by modern science - e.g. gravity. Nature provided the indisputable basis of truth. This paper opens a new historical trajectory of modernity by introducing what the author conceptualises as "queer nature," an alternate basis of truth for what it means to be civilised. Queer nature emerged in the life and work of the independent naturalist and polymath Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941) who practised microbiology through Buddhism-influenced epistemology.

Kumagusu immensely contributed to the knowledge-making of modernity. The evidence is his 51 articles in the Science journal Nature and approximately 400 English essays and 600 Japanese works in the field of Humanities. Even the Shōwa emperor of Japan requested Kumagusu to deliver him a lecture on microbiology (1929). Yet, he remained marginalised in history because historians rarely separated the meaning of civilisation from the making of modern nation-state inspired by the monolithic West and its modern science. Queer nature naturally illuminated experiences of modernity different from that of the normative nature envisioned by the state.

Queer nature served as the basis of truth for "a different kind of civilisation" that arose through cooperation, instead of competition, among nations and race. The present moment of modernity captured the mixture of life and death, instead of the Social Darwinian "survival of the fittest" triumph of life over death. Everyone possessed civilisational agency regardless of their sex, gender, and age. Indeed, the conceptualisation of queer nature sets out a new historical meaning of "queer" as a term not limited to the category of "gender" that emerged from identity politics caused by the normative nature. Kumagusu discerned queer nature that grounded these lived experiences of modernity in the unconventional truth-makers of history towards which he gravitated: jōsei (affective human nature) and microbial species. The history of queer nature challenges the dominant historical discourse on how modern scientific knowledge determined the meaning of civilisation at the turn of the 1880s to 1890s modern Japan when the civilizational discourse has been assumed to have settled.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the reception of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz in the Meiji-Taisho period and clarifies that effect on the contemporary study of philosophy in Japan ever since. Especially, this paper insists on the importance of interpretations of Leibniz's theory made by Tadayoshi Kihira.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reception of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716) in the Meiji-Taisho period (1868–1925) in Japan. Such study is important for understanding the formation of the contemporary situation of the western philosophy study in Japan. I've divided this study into three parts.

Firstly, this paper introduces Leibniz's life and thoughts. He had many works in various fields, for example, mathematics, logic, physic, theology, law, politics, history, medicine, sinology, and so on. After that introduction, this paper clarifies what of these works is important for understanding the reception of his philosophy in Japan.

Secondly, this paper deals with fundamental information on the reception of western philosophy in the Meiji-Taisho period in Japan. This is because Japanese original philosophical theory “the principle of phenomenon namely real (現象即実在論)”, which appeared in Meiji-era, was interpreted as similar to Leibniz's philosophy. For some of the early modern western philosophers, phenomena are just appearances and need support from real beings, for example, souls, substances, forms, and so on. Against this theory, Japanese philosophers thought phenomena and real beings should not be divided. In this point, since Leibniz’s philosophy is also not dividing both, Some Japanese philosophers connect “the principle of phenomenon namely real” with Leibniz’s philosophy.

Finally, this paper explores the steps of reception of the philosophy of Leibniz in Japan. This section tries to clarify three steps of the reception of Leibniz's philosophy and, according to the interpretation of Leibniz on the second-step, will confirm that his theory agrees with the Japanese philosophers' theory. Especially, this paper pays attention to the theory of the “pre-established harmony” of Leibniz and clarifies that Japanese philosophers tried to connect Leibniz’s theory with our principle in the Meiji-Taisho period.

The last part of this paper insists on the importance of interpretations of Tadayoshi Kihira (1874–1949) who was one of the first Japanese researchers of Hegelian philosophy. He discovered the possibility of application of Leibniz’s pre-established harmony to Japanese philosophy on the background of Hegelian philosophy. Therefore, this paper explores also his effect on Japanese philosophical studies ever since.

Paper short abstract:

This paper shows a competing vision of human progress against war, gender inequality, and other products of state-led civilisation in early 20th-century Japan. Arai Ōsui’s forgotten religion posits a new epistemological idea of the divisible yet indivisible universe, ensuring equality of all beings.

Paper long abstract:

Progress is neither masculine nor feminine. This conception informed the intellectual and religious thinker, Arai Ōsui, about rectifying the course of human progress in early 20th-century Japan. While the environmental and political activist, Tanaka Shōzō, has been well-studied, his mentor Ōsui, the main protagonist of this paper, and his religion of Mother-Father God have been largely forgotten in historiography.

Religion was one of the most disputed fields of socio-political and intellectual discussion on the course of making a new moral and ethical construct for new modern Japan, directly tied to different visions of progress. Despite different positions taken over religiosity and morality, however, many of the contemporary ideas, studied extensively in historiography, fundamentally come down to the shared framework of the state-centred Western modern view of civilisational progress. These narratives assume that to become powerful economically, militarily, and technologically in the competitive international order dominated by Western imperial powers – what is traditionally characterised as ‘masculine’ civilisation and modernisation – was the way to vouch for the life and happiness of Japanese nationals. This included Japanese Christian thinkers, many of whom, according to historiography, not only avoided their clash with this state imperial ideology but rather actively supported it.

Challenging the given state-centric civilisation discourse in historiography, Ōsui’s religion was non-imperial and non-nationalistic. This paper shows how Ōsui criticised such a civilisation ideology, which incurred war, imperialism, and the class, national, and gender hierarchy, through his claim of non-war and gender equality in the Russo-Japanese War context. This paper does so by examining his religion of Mother-Father God that gives both new moral subjectivity and responsibility to every human being on the planet to take part in rectifying injustice and inequality in state-led civilisation. Unlike the state-centred masculine modernisation, progress in Ōsui’s thoughts, emerging from the perception of God as both male and female in one, was neither masculine nor feminine but was an equal blending of both in one. Ōsui’s new epistemological idea of the universe, founded on the Mother-Father God, was divisible yet fundamentally and simultaneously indivisible, interdependent, and symbiotic and ensured equal relationality of all beings.

Paper short abstract:

By deconstructing Fukuzawa Yukichi's narrative about the Edo period's victimization of women by Confucianism, I will problematize the notion of Fukuzawa as an advocate of women's rights. Through my analysis I comment on history writing in the Meiji period and the assumptions at play then and now.

Paper long abstract:

My paper will problematize the notion of Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) as an advocate of women's rights. By deconstructing the narrative Fukuzawa created about the victimization of women by Confucianism in the Edo period in newspaper serials such as "On Japanese Women," "Critique on the Greater Learning for Women," and "New Greater Learning for Women," I will show that the accounts Fukuzawa bases his proposal for reform on, was not historically accurate, but was shaped thus to create a clear break with the past and to instil the reader with a sense of urgency. Furthermore, by comparing the sometimes progressive reforms he proposes in these articles with how he depicts an ideal future elsewhere, I will argue that the future Fukuzawa envisions is very much in line with the conservative ryōsai kenbo (good wife, wise mother) ideal, and that, therefore, the reforms he proposed must have served a purpose different from the empowerment of women. It is this purpose that my paper aims to uncover.

Usually Fukuzawa's texts on women are read separately from his other work as an expression of his deep concern for the plight of women. However, a comparison with this other work shows that the main drive behind the above texts was not the status of women in society, but the status of Japan in the world, and that consequently, the vilification of Confucianism and the victimization of women served the purpose of spreading customs such as monogamy as a means to make Japan appear more civilized. Therefore, these texts, as popular versions of his more intellectually challenging work, played an integral part in his civilization project. The main fallacies of the usual depiction of Fukuzawa are: they fail to recognise the constructed nature of Fukuzawa's historical narrative, and they do not look beyond these texts to see what concerns inform them. In other words, these texts have been read out of context. My paper will provide this context, while at same time it will lay bare some of the assumptions and prejudices that have caused these fallacies to go unnoticed for so long.