Watsuji Tetsuro

(1889 - 1960)

The son of a physician, Watsuji Tetsuro spent his adolescence, according to a biographer, “fired with the ambition to become a poet like Byron.” As a university student, disillusioned with literary pursuits, he studied Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard. In 1927 he won a scholarship to study in Germany. He later became a professor of ethics at the universities of Kyoto and Tokyo. He wrote several influential philosophical works, including A Climate: A Philosophical Study.