The Philosophical Possibility of Contemplation in Poetry and Noh Theory: The Range of Japanese Classical Aesthetic Theory by Toshihiko Izutsu and Toyoko

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K00014
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related
• Research Institution: Jichi Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Ono Junichi 自治医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (20847090)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 言語哲学 / 美学 / 日本古典 / 和歌 / 短歌 / 歌論 / 能楽 / 能楽論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Focusing on Toshihiko Izutsu and Toyoko's The Theory of Beauty in the Classical Aesthetics of Japan, this study reads classical texts from the Japanese Middle Ages as texts of philosophy, opening up new philosophical horizons on the methods, practices and verbalisation of the contemplation of nature. In doing so, this study takes Toshihiko's Language and Magic, an analysis of the language generation as image evocation, as the basis for the aforementioned aesthetic study, and also includes his late major work Consciousness and Essence in its scope to analyse medieval Noh as epic/lyric poetry. This suggests that the transition in terms of nature contemplation and method from Waka to Nohgaku and its philosophical significance lies not in the problem of the fusion/separation of nature and the individual, but in the matter of unfixing of subject and object in existential experience and the refinement of its method of verbal expression.

Free Research Field

哲学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、井筒俊彦の言語発生論が日本古典の美学的可能性の探究に資することを示した。彼は自身の言語理論を感性論に応用し、生涯にわたって日本古典の可能性を開拓した。このことから、彼が言語哲学だけでなく美学においても貢献したことが判明した。この側面の解明は、井筒を日本思想史に正確に位置付けることを可能にするという哲学史的意義をもつ。さらに、井筒理論を能楽に適用できることも確認できた。このことは、井筒哲学の創造性を解明することになった。井筒哲学が文化の分析や解釈に応用できる理論を提供し、日本古典の自然観照の哲学的意義を解明し、現代哲学の問題意識に資する点が判明し、本研究は広く社会的意義を持つと言える。