What do we mean by "Japanese thought"? There is no single answer. Across the centuries, people in Japan have asked different questions about how to live, what we can know, and how we relate to others and the world around us. Their answers have not always agreed.
Older practices centred on kami, Buddhist and Confucian ideas that travelled through Asia, the study of ancient texts, and modern philosophy all became part of this history. They met, changed, and sometimes challenged one another; no single tradition explains the whole.
This guide offers a small historical map rather than a definition. It follows some of the people, texts and questions that shaped thinking in Japan, and points to reliable places to begin reading in English. You can enter wherever something catches your interest, and let the map become more detailed as you read.
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What does "Japanese thought" include?
The modern academic term for philosophy, tetsugaku (哲学), was coined by Nishi Amane (西周) in the early Meiji period to translate "philosophy".01 The modern university subject developed through contact with Western academic systems. But that does not mean people in earlier Japan lacked serious reflection and argument. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy treats Shintō, Confucianism and Buddhism as foundational sources of Japanese philosophy, and describes its long interaction with Chinese, Indian, Korean and Western thought.02
"Thought" is a useful word here because it lets us include texts whose original purposes do not fit neatly into a modern university department. A sermon, a commentary, a discussion of education and a literary essay may all help us understand an argument, even though they are different kinds of writing.
"Japanese", too, points to discussions shaped in Japan, often through ideas and texts that arrived from elsewhere. The routes by which those materials travelled are part of their meaning.
From Baekje to Kyoto: a short map of arguments
Buddhism began in India and reached Japan through wider Asian networks. The traditional account says it was officially introduced when the king of Baekje, a Korean kingdom, sent a Buddha image and sutras to the Japanese court in the sixth century; sources give 538 or 552.03 Confucian texts and teachings also reached Japan through Baekje around the mid-sixth century.04 These arrivals brought texts and institutions, not just general ideas. A religious or ethical word on a Japanese page can belong to a history much larger than Japan.
Older rituals centred on kami also formed part of this history. They were not a single, unchanged system identical to modern Shintō: kami worship and Buddhism interacted in different ways over centuries.02
Japanese Buddhist traditions then developed in different directions. In 804, Saichō (最澄, 767–822) and Kūkai (空海, 774–835) sailed to Tang China with the same diplomatic mission, though they went their separate ways once there.0506 Before this, Kūkai had faced relatives and teachers who objected that becoming a monk would make him fail in his duties of loyalty and filial piety. He set out his response in a preface to Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings, discussing Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism; an English excerpt appears among the reading routes below.07 He went on to establish the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism in Japan, while Saichō’s Tendai school was officially recognised in 806.0605
Later, Shinran (親鸞, 1173–1262), founder of Jōdo Shinshū, taught complete reliance on the "Other Power" (tariki, 他力) of Amida Buddha.09 Dōgen (道元, 1200–1253) studied in Song China and founded the Japanese Sōtō Zen school; his major work is the Shōbōgenzō (正法眼蔵).10 Within a few centuries, then, "Japanese Buddhism" already meant several different arguments, not a single method for calming the mind.
In the Edo period, Confucian thinkers argued about learning, language, ethics and government. Some went back to ancient texts to challenge accepted readings. Itō Jinsai (伊藤仁斎, 1627–1705) urged readers to read the Analects and Mencius directly, rather than through Zhu Xi’s commentaries.1104 Ogyū Sorai (荻生徂徠, 1666–1728) argued that to read the Confucian classics correctly, you must first study the ancient Chinese in which they were written.12
Their disagreements show that even familiar activities such as studying and repeatedly reading a classical passage can rest on different ideas of what counts as learning.
Kokugaku (国学), often translated as "National Learning", used careful study of texts such as the Kojiki and the Man’yōshū to investigate what scholars regarded as an earlier Japanese way, distinct from Confucian and Buddhist teachings.13 Its best-known scholar, Motoori Norinaga (本居宣長, 1730–1801), completed a 44-volume commentary on the Kojiki in 1798.14 Norinaga claimed that exposure to Chinese moral thought obscured what he saw as a native Japanese heart-mind; his teacher Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769) had likewise looked to ancient poetry for insight into Japan before Chinese influence.15 When a writer claims to recover a pure native spirit, it is worth examining that claim rather than accepting purity as the starting point.
From the nineteenth century, translated ideas and new institutions changed the field again. Fukuzawa Yukichi (福沢諭吉, 1835–1901) published An Encouragement of Learning (Gakumon no susume, 学問のすゝめ) as seventeen essays between 1872 and 1876.16 It opens with the famous line that heaven does not create one person above or below another, and urged readers to pursue learning rather than accept inherited social rank.17 For Fukuzawa, personal independence and national independence were linked.18
In the twentieth century, philosophers of the Kyoto School, beginning with Nishida Kitarō (西田幾多郎), drew on Mahāyāna Buddhism as well as the methods and content of Western philosophy.19 Both Fukuzawa and the Kyoto School engaged selectively with ideas from beyond Japan. Their work cannot be described simply as foreign thought replacing Japanese thought.
Choose a question before choosing a thinker
You will read more effectively if you start with something you want to understand. The routes below are not a ranking. Short original passages with some context are often a better first step than someone’s collected works. If you want one place to begin today, Kūkai’s short preface, free to read on Columbia University’s Asia for Educators site, takes only a few minutes.07
What belongs on the wider map?
Thomas P. Kasulis, Engaging Japanese Philosophy: A Short History (University of Hawai’i Press, 2018; paperback ISBN 9780824874070).
Despite "Short" in the title, it is a 784-page survey. Half of its chapters focus on seven thinkers: Kūkai, Shinran, Dōgen, Ogyū Sorai, Motoori Norinaga, Nishida Kitarō and Watsuji Tetsurō. Read the chapter you need.20
FURTHER READING · AD
Engaging Japanese Philosophy: A Short History
Thomas P. Kasulis
University of Hawai’i Press
Can I meet several voices directly?
Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook, edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis and John C. Maraldo (University of Hawai’i Press, 2011; paperback ISBN 9780824836184).
Translated selections from more than a hundred thinkers, each with background and context. Read the introduction before the passage; this is a library to return to, rather than a book to finish.21
FURTHER READING · AD
Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook
Edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis and John C. Maraldo
University of Hawai’i Press
Can a religious calling conflict with family duty?
Kūkai (774–835): the preface to Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings, freely available from Columbia University’s Asia for Educators. He answers the relatives and teachers who opposed him: people differ, he says, and choosing one teaching does not mean rejecting loyalty and filial piety. It is a first taste of Kūkai, rather than a full account of esoteric Buddhism.07
Read the free English excerpt →
Can everyone reach enlightenment?
Saichō (767–822): selected writings on the same Columbia University site. Saichō writes that all human beings have the lotus of Buddhahood within them. Read it alongside Kūkai to see two different paths that began in the same year, 804.22
Read the free English excerpts →
Must religious change be my own achievement?
Shinran (1173–1262): start with an introduction to Jōdo Shinshū and a short letter from The Collected Works of Shinran, available online in an authorised English translation.23 "Other Power" belongs to a setting of faith in Amida Buddha; it is more than general advice to stop trying.09
Read Shinran’s letter in English →
How do language and old texts shape judgement?
Introductions to the Edo-period thinkers Ogyū Sorai (1666–1728) and Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801). Compare how each of them approached old texts; Kasulis’s book gives both a chapter, and the Sourcebook is a place to look for further selections.20
How are education and independence connected?
Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901), An Encouragement of Learning, translated by David A. Dilworth (Columbia University Press, 2013; hardcover ISBN 9780231167147).
Personal learning is tied to modern public and national life as well as private self-improvement.24
FURTHER READING · AD
An Encouragement of Learning
Fukuzawa Yukichi · Translated by David A. Dilworth
Columbia University Press
How do experience, self and world relate?
An introduction to the early 20th-century Kyoto School before Nishida Kitarō’s (1870–1945) own writings. Terms such as "absolute nothingness" are technical. Some knowledge of Buddhism helps, but the argument is still demanding.19
Can we be individuals and also live through relationships?
Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960), read in a history or sourcebook. Watsuji argues that we are individuals, yet not only individuals, because we are also social beings — and social beings who are never only social. Read it as an argument to test, rather than as proof that Japanese people reject individuality.25
To explore the changing forms of writing alongside these ideas, see our short guide to Japanese literature.
Where to go from here
Begin with a question that catches your attention, whether it concerns learning, religious practice, or the relationship between a person and the wider world. If you keep a reading notebook, note who wrote the passage, when, and what they were trying to understand.
An introduction cannot settle every disagreement or represent every voice. As you follow one text to another, some ideas may become clearer and others may challenge your first impressions. That is what this map is for: a place to begin, with room for your understanding to change.
Sources
[01] Kotobank, Tetsugaku 哲学 (in Japanese)
[02] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Japanese Philosophy
[03] Kotobank, Bukkyō denrai 仏教伝来 (the arrival of Buddhism) (in Japanese)
[04] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Japanese Confucian Philosophy
[05] Kotobank, Saichō 最澄 (in Japanese)
[06] Kotobank, Kūkai 空海 (in Japanese)
[07] Columbia University, Asia for Educators, Kūkai: Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings
[09] Kotobank, Shinran 親鸞 (in Japanese)
[10] Kotobank, Dōgen 道元 (in Japanese)
[11] Kotobank, Itō Jinsai 伊藤仁斎 (in Japanese)
[12] Kotobank, Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠 (in Japanese)
[13] Kotobank, Kokugaku 国学 (in Japanese)
[14] Kotobank, Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長 (in Japanese)
[15] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Japanese Philosophy of Kokugaku
[16] Kotobank, Fukuzawa Yukichi 福沢諭吉 (in Japanese)
[17] Keio University, 150 Years of An Encouragement of Learning
[18] Kotobank, Gakumon no susume 学問のすゝめ (in Japanese)
[19] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Kyoto School
[20] University of Hawai’i Press, Thomas P. Kasulis, Engaging Japanese Philosophy: A Short History
[21] University of Hawai’i Press, Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook (eds. Heisig, Kasulis and Maraldo)
[22] Columbia University, Asia for Educators, Saichō: Selected Writings
[24] Columbia University Press, An Encouragement of Learning, translated by David A. Dilworth
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