A research group led by Professor Shigeo Kawaguchi, Researcher Yasunari Tsutsumida, and Special Researcher Hu Ba of Sophia University's Faculty of Letters selected Shuzo Kuki, Soichi Iwashita, Hajime Tanabe, and others from materials held by the Research Center for Modern and Contemporary Art History and University History, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. A group of handwritten letters written by one of modern Japan's leading philosophers from the Taisho era to the first half of the Showa era has been discovered.
According to Sophia University, this material is related to Naoaki Ueno, the first president of Tokyo University of the Arts. There are over 200 pieces in total, all of which were written by these philosophers to President Ueno. It is a first-class resource that can shed new light on the thoughts and lives of modern Japan's leading philosophers, and the details of the research are published in the ``Bulletin of the Department of Philosophy'' of the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, Sophia University, and are available online.
President Ueno is a researcher of aesthetics and Japanese art history. He served as director of the Osaka City Museum of Art, principal of the old Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and president of the new Tokyo University of the Arts. In the 2010s, his relatives donated a large number of materials, including diaries, notebooks, and letters, to Tokyo University of the Arts, but due to the sheer volume and old handwritten materials, some parts were difficult to decipher. The investigation was not progressing.
The research group focused its investigation on a group of letters sent by philosophers, and confirmed that the group of letters is an important source for research on the history of Japanese philosophy. In the future, we plan to collaborate with Tokyo University of the Arts to further research and publish the material.
Reference: [Sophia University] A collection of handwritten letters from leading modern Japanese philosophers such as Shuzo Kuki, Soichi Iwashita, and Hajime Tanabe was discovered. A first-class collection of letters that can shed new light on the thoughts and lives of famous philosophers. Document
