Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892–1927), short-story writer and essayist known for his social criticism; author of Kappa (1927) and “In a Grove” (1922).
Arai Hakuseki (1657–1725), Confucian scholar who played a central role in forming government policy under the Tokugawa Bakufu.
Blue Stockings Society, a group formed in 1911 around the literary journal Seitō and its founder Hiratsuka Raichō. The goal of the group was to develop women’s literary talent, but it encountered considerable social opposition and ostracism.
Chin Kasen, aka Chen Houquan (1908–1999), Taiwanese writer whose short story “Road” (1943) was written during the period of Japanese colonization.
Doi Takeo (b. 1920), psychoanalyst and major theorist of Nihonjin-ron discourse on Japanese uniqueness; author of The Anatomy of Dependence (1971).
Etō Jun (1933–1999), literary and social critic whose writings focus on such figures as Natsume Sōseki and Kobayashi Hideo.
Fanon, Frantz (1925–1961), Martinican thinker, educated in France, whose analyses of racism and colonial violence are contained in such works as Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961).
Fujioka Nobukatsu (b. 1943), professor of education at Tokyo University and one of the central figures of the nationalist “liberalist view of history” movement; works include The History That Textbooks Don’t Teach (1996).
Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901), social reformer, author, and educator, one of the leading advocates of Japan’s “civilization and enlightenment.” Founded Keiō University in 1868.
Furusawa (Kosawa) Heisaku (1897–1968), psychoanalyst trained in Vienna, where he met Freud; known for his formulation of the “Ajase complex,” focusing on the mother-child relation.
gesaku, a broad term used to refer to fiction produced during the century prior to the opening of the Meiji period in 1868. This fiction is largely known for its humor and parody.
Girault, Arthur (1865–1931), French government official who helped formulate legislation in France’s colonies.
Gotō Shinpei (1857–1929), bureaucrat who held various high-level posts in the Japanese government, foremost among which were chief of Civilian Administration in Taiwan (1898–1906) and first president of the Manchurian Railway (1906).
Hasegawa Michiko (b. 1946), professor of philosophy and comparative thought at Saitama University; member of Japanese historical revisionist movement.
Hayashi Fusao (1903–1975), one of the leading writers of the proletarian literature movement of the 1920s; noted for refusal to renounce his tenkō after the war. Cofounder of second Literary World journal.
Hiromatsu Wataru (1933–1994), philosopher whose theoretical interests included Marxism, materialism, and epistemology. Author of On “Overcoming Modernity” (1989).
Hozumi Yatsuka (1860–1912), conservative legal scholar generally credited with representing Meiji imperial sovereignty on the basis of the Japanese family-state.
Illich, Ivan (1926–2002), theorist of radical ecology movement popular in the 1970s, known for his critique of modernity and its various institutions, such as education and medicine.
Inoue Tetsujirō (1855–1944), philosopher, government official, and professor at Tokyo University who sought to preserve Japanese tradition and promote reverence for the emperor.
Ishibashi Tanzan (1884–1973), journalist, economist, and politician who briefly served as prime minister from 1956 to 1957.
Japanese Romantic School (Nihon roman-ha), a group of nationalist writers and critics affiliated with the Japanese Romantic School journal (1935–1938), whose leading members included Yasuda Yojūrō and Kamei Katsuichirō.
Kachikujin yapū [Thedomestic yapoo], manga first released in 1970 by Ishinomori Shōtarō depicting a world of science fiction in which whites employ blacks and Japanese people as slaves.
Katō Norihiro (b. 1948), literary critic and professor of modern Japanese literature at Meiji Gakuin University whose books include In the Shadow of America (1985) and After the Defeat (1997).
Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972), novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 whose works include Snow Country (1948) and The Sound of the Mountain (1952).
Kawai Hayao (b. 1928), Jungian psychoanalyst and scholar of clinical psychology whose writings encompass such topics as religion, fairy tales, and Japanese culture.
Kawakami Tetsutarō (1902–1980), critic, scholar, and cotranslator (1934) of Lev Shestov’s influential Philosophy of Tragedy; organized “Overcoming Modernity” symposium.
Kino Tsurayuki (872–945), aristocrat poet who helped compile the imperial waka poetry collection Kokinshū; author of the Tosa Diary.
Kitamura Tokoku (1868–1894), poet and essayist who developed a notion of subjective interiority based on humanist values; associated with the first Literary World journal.
Kobayashi Hideo (1902–1983), influential literary and social critic whose major works focus on Dostoevsky, van Gogh, Mozart, and Motoori Norinaga; cofounder of the second Literary World journal.
Kobayashi Yoshinori (b. 1953), manga artist known for his extreme nationalist political views, as expressed in such works as the 1993 Declaration of Haughtiness.
Kojima Nobuo (b. 1915), writer whose work has explored the changing nature of family relations in postwar Japanese society; author of Embracing Family (1965).
Kōno Taeko (b. 1926), writer known for her depiction of such topics as sadomasochism and trauma. Her short fiction has been collected in the volume Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories (1996).
Konoe Atsumaro (1863–1904), aristocrat statesman who served as chairman of the House of Peers and president of Gakushūin University; father of Konoe Fumimaro.
Konoe Fumimaro (1891–1945), court aristocrat who served as prime minister from 1937 to 1939 and again from 1940 to 1941. Committed suicide shortly after Japan’s defeat.
Kyoto School (Kyōto gakuha), the group of philosophers and other intellectuals centered around Nishida Kitarō and Tanabe Hajime at Kyoto University in the 1920s and 1930s.
Loti, Pierre (1850–1923), French novelist whose works are notable for exoticizing foreign cultures; author of Madame Chrysanthemum (1887).
Lu Xun (1881–1936), pioneer of modern Chinese literature whose works enormously influenced Takeuchi Yoshimi; was the subject of Takeuchi’s early writings.
Maruyama Masao (1914–1996), leading political scientist and intellectual historian in postwar Japan; major works include Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (1952) and Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics (1969).
Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), writer and poetry critic noted for his reform of haiku poetry and introduction of shasei, or “sketching,” form of writing.
Miki Kiyoshi (1897–1945), philosopher and critic whose thought represented a synthesis of Marxism and early Heidegger; helped organize the government commission known as the Shōwa Research Association.
Minobe Tatsukichi (1873–1948), scholar of constitutional law renowned for his “organ theory” (tennō kikan setsu), according to which the emperor was seen as an organ of the State.
Mishima Yukio (1925–1970), novelist who became involved in Japanese right-wing movement and committed ritual suicide; works include Confessions of a Mask (1949) and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956).
Miura Gorō (1847–1926), military officer who became Japanese minister to Korea; infamous for having ordered the assassination of Queen Min.
Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), scholar of Japanese classics and representative writer of the Tokugawa school of National Learning (kokugaku).
Murakami Ryū (b. 1952), novelist whose first work, Almost Transparent Blue (1976), won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature.
Murayama Tomiichi (b. 1924), politician who headed the Socialist Party and served as prime minister from 1994 to 1996.
Nakamura Mitsuo (1911–1988), literary critic, scholar of French and Japanese literature known for his intellectual biographies of such figures as Futabatei Shimei, Tanizaki Junichirō and Shiga Naoya.
Nakano Shigeharu (1902–1979), poet, novelist, and critic, leading figure of the proletarian literature movement. Helped found the New Japanese Literature Association in 1945.
National Flag and Anthem Law, controversial law passed in August 1999 that establishes Japan’s national flag and anthem as the Hinomaru and Kimigayo.
Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916), one of the founders of modern Japanese literature in his capacities as novelist, scholar, and critic; author of such works as The Young Master (1906) and Kokoro (1914).
Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), foremost philosopher of modern Japan, founder of the Kyoto School; taught at Kyoto University from 1910 to 1928.
Nishitani Keiji (1900–1990), Kyoto School philosopher and professor of philosophy at Kyoto University who participated in both the “Overcoming Modernity” and “World-Historical Standpoint and Japan” symposiums of 1941 and 1942.
Nitobe Inazō (1862–1933), Christian writer known for his book Bushidō, the Soul of Japan (1899). Served as under secretary general of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1927.
Nogi Maresuke (1849–1912), army general famous for capturing Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905); committed suicide, with his wife, following the death of the Emperor Meiji.
Ō Shōyū, aka Wang Changxiong (1916–2000), Taiwanese writer whose short story “Torrent” (1943) was written during the period of Japanese colonization.
Okada, John (1923–1970), Japanese-American author of No-No Boy (1957).
Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913), disciple of Ernest Fenollosa who advocated a return to traditional Japanese art. His pan-Asianist views are expressed in his English-language book The Ideal of the East (1903).
Ōnishi Kyojin (b. 1919), writer whose masterpiece, Divine Comedy (1980) required two decades to complete.
Ōoka Shōhei (1909–1988), postwar novelist and critic most remembered for his antiwar novel Fires on the Plain (1952).
Ōshiro Tatsuhiro (b. 1925), Okinawan novelist awarded the Akutagawa Prize for Literature in 1967 for his work Cocktail Party
Ranke, Leopold von (1795–1886), German historian whose meticulous research and analyses can be seen in his History of the Popes (1834–1839); set forth notion of “moral energy” later incorporated by the Kyoto School.
Saigō Takamori (1827–1877), one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration whose unsuccessful rebellion against the central government in 1877, known as the Seinan War, forced him to commit suicide.
Sakaguchi Ango (1906–1955), one of the central figures of the postwar burai-ha literary faction, whose works are noted for their rebellious, parodistic tone; author of the essay “On Decadence” (1946).
Sakuta Keiichi (b. 1922), sociologist whose writings on Japanese culture can be found in such works as Reconsideration of Shame Cultures (1964).
Shiba Ryōtarō (1923–1996), historical novelist whose immensely popular works include Clouds Above the Hill (1968–1972).
Shimomura Toratarō (1902–1995), Kyoto School philosopher and participant in the “Overcoming Modernity” symposium; noted for his writings on science, history, and art.
Shiratori Kurakichi (1865–1942), professor of history at Tokyo Imperial University and pioneer of the field of “Oriental History.”
Spencer, Herbert (1820–1903), English thinker who sought to apply the scientific notion of evolution to the realm of philosophy and ethics; author of Principles of Psychology (1855).
Tajima Miruku (b. 1958), manga artist whose works include the 1992 I Am an Angel, You Are a Devil.
Takamure Itsue (1894–1964), prewar feminist thinker who articulated a notion of the “mother self,” whose communality was opposed to that of the individual self.
Takemitsu Tōru (1930–1996), composer whose prolific works have met with enormous critical success, both in Japan and abroad; wrote the scores for such films as Woman in the Dunes and Ran.
Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910–1977), critic and sinologist who introduced Lu Xun’s works in Japan, criticized Western imperialism in Asia, and formulated concept of resistance (teikō).
Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962), leading Kyoto School philosopher who succeeded Nishida Kitarō at Kyoto University; developed notion of the logic of species.
Tanaka Yasuo (b. 1956), novelist and politician whose works include Somewhat Crystal (1981) and Our Era (1986).
Tanigawa Gan (1923–1995), poet and critic whose texts have focused on the margins of Japanese society; author of The Myth of Democracy (1960).
Taut, Bruno (1880–1938), German architect of the “New Objective” school who lived in Japan from 1933 to 1936.
Tokutomi Roka (1868–1927), a Meiji-era writer whose extremely popular works included Nature and Life (1900) and Footprints in the Snow (1901).
Tosaka Jun (1900–1945), Marxist philosopher who studied under Nishida Kitarō, whom he later criticized along with the Kyoto School as a whole for their rightist political tendencies; author of On Japanese Ideology (1935).
Tsumugi Taku (b. 1964), popular manga artist, particularly in the mid 1980s, whose works center on the experiences of juvenile delinquents.
Tsumura Hideo (1907–1985), film critic who participated in the “Overcoming Modernity” symposium; author of Film and Criticism (1939).
Uchida Shungiku (b. 1959), manga artist and novelist whose stories recount the events in the lives of female office workers; author of the 1994 We are Procreating.
Uchimura Kanzō (1861–1930), leading Christian thinker and activist educated in the United States who criticized Western missionaries for their colonialist attitudes.
Ume Kenjirō (1860–1910), high government official who had studied law in Europe and helped established the Japanese Civil Code; first president of Hōsei University.
Yamada Eimi (b. 1959), novelist whose works explore racial and sexual issues; books include Bedtime Eyes (1985) and Trash (1991).
Yanaihara Tadao (1893–1961), Christian pacifist writer and educator who became president of Tokyo University after World War II.
Yasuda Yojūrō (1910–1981), nationalist leader of the Japanese Romantic School who wrote on German aesthetics and traditional Japanese culture; editor of the journals Cogito (1933–1944) and Japanese Romantic School (1935–1938).
Yasuoka Shōtarō (b. 1920), fiction writer and critic whose work A Melancholy Pleasure (1953) earned him the Akutagawa Prize for Literature.
Yoshida Shigeru (1878–1967): politician who served for two terms as prime minister, the first very briefly in 1946 and the second from 1948 to 1954.
Yoshimitsu Yoshihiko (1904–1945), Catholic theologian and participant in the “Overcoming Modernity” symposium, where he argued for a return to medieval spirituality.
Yoshimoto Takaaki (b. 1924), poet and literary critic known for his concepts of the people, emotion, and authentic communality.
Zenkyōtō (All-Campus Joint Struggle Council), student movement during the 1960s and early 1970s that protested against such issues as the Vietnam War and the Japanese university education system.