Kuki Shūzō

Shūzō Kuki (February 15, 1888 – May 6, 1941) was a Japanese art critic, philosopher, and poet. He was the fourth child of Baron Kuki Ryūichi, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Meiji Ministry for Culture and Education. Despite his father's position, there were rumors about Kuki's paternity, with Okakura Kakuzō often mentioned. Kuki converted to Catholicism in 1911. He graduated in philosophy from Tokyo Imperial University and spent eight years in Europe, studying at the University of Heidelberg under Heinrich Rickert, the University of Paris where he met Henri Bergson, and the University of Freiburg and University of Marburg where he studied phenomenology under Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. During his time in Europe, he influenced Jean-Paul Sartre and met Martin Heidegger. Upon returning to Japan, he published his masterpiece, "The Structure of 'Iki'" (1930), a phenomenological analysis of a Japanese aesthetic concept. He then took up a teaching post at Kyoto University, where he became an associate professor in 1933 and a full professor in 1934. In 1935, he published 'The Problem of Contingency', influenced by his experiences in Europe and Heidegger's philosophy. His lectures on Heidegger, 'Man and Existence', were published in 1939. Kuki died in 1941 at the age of 53. His manuscripts are housed at Konan University Library.