The Fight to the Death of Miki Kiyoshi

Subject, Environment, and Imagination

When people talk about Japanese philosophers, they usually think of individuals who combined modern ideas with Zen Buddhist philosophy. However, the nature of Japanese philosophy is much more complex.

The influence of Buddhism on Japanese philosophy has been real, though it varies greatly from one author to another. In cases where this influence is evident, Buddhist notions are often in tension with other elements, such as neo-Kantianism and phenomenology.

Below, I would like to present the Marxist philosopher Miki Kiyoshi 三木清 (1897–1945). He was an important yet lesser-known figure in Japanese philosophy who borrowed very little from Buddhist thought, unlike some philosophers such as Nishitani Keiji and Yamauchi Tokuryū.

He studied the works of Blaise Pascal and Karl Marx and was influenced by Martin Heidegger and Nishida Kitarō. Miki Kiyoshi wrote about important topics such as the self, the environment, emotion, and imagination in philosophical papers and books, as well as in newspapers for a wider audience. In other words, he was a public philosopher.

His philosophy was also shaped by the difficult historical context of Japan during wartime, when he fought against militarism before tragically dying in prison. Miki’s historical situation has been well-commented on, as evidenced, for instance, by the following words of Arisaka Yōko:

Miki Kiyoshi was born in what is today Hyōgo Prefecture, in an area of rapid modernization after the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. This was a period in Japanese history where catatonic shifts occurred in culture, politics, infrastructure, science, education, and every aspect of people’s lives. “Modern Western science and culture” was pitted against traditional ways of thought. The preoccupations of the Meiji intellectuals centered around how to negotiate this encroaching process of Westernization that was quickly framing not only academia but generally all aspects of life. (Arisaka Yōko, 2024, p. 138)

In order to propose a journey that you may find interesting, I will start by summarizing his unusual life and work. Then, I will present two dimensions of his work:

• His introduction of new ideas about the subject and its relationship to its surroundings.

• His famous “logic of imagination.”

If you are interested in learning more about the power of imagination, this article is for you.