Abstract

The term “Kyoto School” usually refers to Nishida Kitarô and the philosophers who learned from and were influenced by him. Many of these philosophers practiced Zen and were influenced by it. In this paper, I wish to take up the interpretation of Zen by two of the Kyoto School philosophers, Hisamatsu Shin’ichi and Tanabe Hajime, from the point of view of the idea of “the other.” Zen is usually seen to be about “elucidating the matter of the self,” and thus restricted to a pursuit of the self in which there is no room for the notion of the other. But in truth, the other has a deep relevance in Zen philosophy. Hisamatsu has suggested, the Absolute, the Buddha, and the self that is the Absolute Self are, while absolutely separated, capable of becoming one. In order to realize that, as Tanabe points out, one needs the concrete relationship of master-disciple as an intermediary. It is there that an existential communion that transcends life and death can be established.