Abstract

Though not yet a well-known figure outside of Japan, Naka Tarō 那珂太郎 stands at the crossroads of philosophical and artistic exchanges in twentieth-century Japanese literature. Not only was Naka a devotee of the great poet Matsuo Bashō 松尾芭蕉 and Kyōto School 京都学派 head and titan of modern Japanese literature Nishida Kitarō 西田幾多郎, but he was also versed in philosophy and art from Western Europe, with Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Charles Baudelaire all having exerted a great influence on his poetry. Indeed, these "Western" figures influenced the Kyōto School itself; the work of Nishida and his acolytes and associates including Nishitani Keiji 西谷啓治, Watsuji Testurō 和辻哲郎, and Kuki Shūzo 九鬼周造 would have been...