This book is above all the product of several friendships begun while I was conducting postdoctoral research in Tokyo from the years 1999 to 2001. Nishitani Osamu (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) was kind enough to act as my adviser during this time. In addition to the various seminars offered by Professor Nishitani, I also attended those given by Takahashi Tetsuya (University of Tokyo) and Ukai Satoshi (Hitotsubashi University). These seminars were a source of great inspiration for me, and I am happy to thank Professors Nishitani, Takahashi, and Ukai for discussions that took place both within and outside of them. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Iwasaki Minoru (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), whose Hegel seminar with its unorthodox mixture of Japanese, German, and French remains a model for me of intellectual inquiry and camaraderie.
More generally, I am grateful to all of the book’s contributors—in addition to those named here, Professors Ehara Yumiko, Kang Sangjung, Karatani Kōjin, and Ueno Chizuko—for their generous participation in this project. I am no less thankful to the translators of these essays for their fine work here.
This project would not have been possible without the work of Naoki Sakai, with whom I first began reading contemporary Japanese thought. Carol Gluck has provided consistent support for this project, and I am indebted to her kindness. This work has also benefited from two reviewers, one of whom remains anonymous; the other, Mark Anderson, read the manuscript carefully and offered suggestions and encouragement, both of which were quite welcome. Takeshi Kimoto performed a valuable service in checking over several translations with his usual expertise. Finally, thanks go to Madge Huntington of the East Asian Institute at Columbia University and Jennifer Crewe of Columbia University Press.
The book is dedicated to M: xiexie.