At 5 pm on January 23rd, in Room 11 of Building 101 at Komaba Campus, UTokyo, the 3rd meeting of the Japanese Philosophy Network was held. This time, I, Hanako Takayama, gave a presentation entitled “The Concept of the Immemorial in Megumi Sakabe.” Megumi Sakabe (1936-2009) is a Japanese Philosopher especially known as a Kant scholar, but also for his writings about Japanese Philosophy, particularly about Watsuji and Kuki. After briefly outlining his career and secondary sources such as Keiichi Noe, I focused on the term “katari” which is differentiated from hanashi or uta from the viewpoint of plot. Though Katari: The Grammar of storytelling is not included in his own collection of works, it is noteworthy the term “immemorial” appears concerning the mythical spheres. I dealt also with the appearance of cosmic spheres in The Poetics of Persona, the phrase “un domaine immémorial” used by Gaston Bachelard in Tetsuro Watsuji, and his strong interest in Charles Sanders Peirce’s cosmology. In the discussion time, we discussed lots of things such as the difference between fudo (Watsuji) and mason (Bachelard), Sakabe’s essential preference for arts including music, Sakabe’s idea about nature, and so on. Since it is strongly connected to the question of myths and their political power, I would like to explore and reconsider how he read Foucault.
Reported by Hanako Takayama (EAA Project Assistant Professor)
Photographed by Yukiko Kuwayama (UTCP Project Research Fellow)