Who is Nishida Kitarō?

The Shortest Introduction to the Founder of the Kyoto School

Can think of the name of a Japanese philosopher without looking one up? Do you know any?

I want to do something here that I should have done when I first started writing online posts. I would like to introduce some important figures of modern Japanese philosophy. 

In current scholarship on modern Japanese philosophy, we are used to distinguishing two “schools,” that is, groups of philosophers, the “Kyoto School” (mostly for prewar Japan) and the “Tokyo School” (mostly for postwar Japan).

In this post, I would like to introduce you to the first important figure of the Kyoto School (Kyōto gakuha 京都学派), its so-called founder, Nishida Kitarō 西田幾多郎 (1870–1945).