Origins & Early Life

Kitarō Nishida (西田 幾多郎, Nishida Kitarō; May 19, 1870 – June 7, 1945) was a Japanese moral philosopher, philosopher of mathematics and science, and religious scholar. He was the founder of what has been called the Kyoto School of philosophy. He graduated from the University of Tokyo during the Meiji period in 1894 with a degree in philosophy. He was named professor of the Fourth Higher School in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1899 and later became professor of philosophy at Kyoto University.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Nishida retired in 1927. In 1940, he was awarded the Order of Culture (文化勲章, bunka kunshō). He participated in establishing the Chiba Institute of Technology (千葉工業大学) from 1940. Nishida Kitarō died at the age of 75 of a renal infection. His cremated remains were divided up and interred at different locations.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Part of his remains are interred in the Nishida family grave in his birthplace of Unoke, Ishikawa. A second grave can be found at Tōkei-ji Temple in Kamakura, where his friend D. T. Suzuki organized Nishida's funeral and was later interred in the adjacent plot. Nishida's third grave is at Reiun'in (霊雲院, Reiun'in), a temple in the Myōshin-ji compound in Kyoto. Being born in the third...

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