Abstract
In order to acquire Western knowledge, Japanese intellectuals were travelling to European countries since Bakumatsu Period (幕末, 1853-1867). The golden age of foreign trips started in the 1920s, when major Japanese philosophers such as Tanabe Hajime (田辺元, 1885-1962), Kuki Shūzō (九鬼周造, 1888-1941), Nishitani Keiji (西谷啓治, 1900-1990), and Watsuji Tetsurō (和辻哲郎, 1889-1960) travelled overseas for long term stays to attend lectures of contemporary European philosophers in order to accomplish professor appointment requirements of Japanese imperial universities.
Watsuji, a docent of philosophy and ethics at Kyoto Imperial University (Kyōto teikoku daigaku, 京都帝国大学) at the time, was dispatched on a three-year stay in Germany in 1927. His long journey to Europe across Asia served as a source of inspiration to follow up cultural history studies, i.e.
A Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples (Koji junrei, 古寺巡礼, 1919), that he initiated in Japan. Since the long-term travelling experience stimulated his philosophical observations, Watsuji started to work on his "anthropological" inquiry into the "cultural climate" of world cultures, Fūdo - ningengakuteki kōsatsu (風土-人間学的考察, 1934), which contrasts Western (meadow) and Eastern (monsoon) culture, while separating East and West by the Middle East (desert) in between.
In my paper, I am mainly focused on examining Watsuji's work Fūdo as a traveller's testimony reflecting on the Self-recognition via recognition of the Other, which transcends a mere comparison of cultural particularities. In addition, I will attempt to analyze the effect of maritime travelling on the pre-war philosophical paradigm in Japan.