Watsuji Tetsuro's Ethics of Betweenness (Aidagara)

Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960) trained first in literature and aesthetics, publishing an early study of Nietzsche in 1913 and a study of Kierkegaard in 1915, before turning to the history of Japanese Buddhist art and thought in works such as Koji Junrei (Pilgrimages to Ancient Temples, 1919) and Nihon Kodai Bunka (Ancient Japanese Culture, 1920). He taught ethics at Kyoto Imperial University from 1925 to 1934, placing him within the Kyoto School's institutional orbit alongside Nishida and Tanabe even though his own systematic ethics developed a quite distinct framework, before moving to the chair of ethics at Tokyo Imperial University in 1934, a post he held until 1949.