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遊佐道子 Yusa Michiko (1951-)

Michiko Yusa is a professor of Japanese thought and intercultural philosophy at
Western Washington University in Bellingham, in the Department of Modern and
Classical Languages, and the Center for East Asian Studies. She received her BA from
the International Christian University in Tokyo (1974), and her MA (1977) and PhD
(1983) from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California
Santa Barbara, where she worked closely with Raimon Panikkar and Ninian Smart.
Her main focus of research is the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō, but her research
interests extend to philosophical and religious writings East and West, women’s
spirituality in Japanese Buddhism and Western contemplative traditions, Raimon
Panikkar’s thought, among others. She has published over fifty articles and several
books, including Zen and Philosophy: An Intellectual Biography of Nishida Kitarō
(2002); Japanese Religious Traditions (2002), Denki Nishida Kitarō (A biography
of Nishida Kitarō in Japanese) (1998), and Basic Kanji with Matsuo Soga (1989,
fifth printing 2007); she also coedited the volumes Isamu Noguchi and Skyviewing
Sculpture: Proceedings of Japan Week 2003 (2004), and CIRPIT Review 5 (2014),
special issue of the symposium proceedings on Raimon Panikkar (2013). She is the
past president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, and is currently
serving as its program chair for the American Academy of Religion. She was a recipient
of the Japan Foundation Fellowship 1993– 94; she is currently affiliated with
the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2016– 17, as the Roche Chair visiting
research fellow.

Articles by Michiko Yusa

Yusa, Michiko, and 北川東子 Kitagawa Sakiko, “Women Philosophers.”
pp. 1115–1137 (overview) and pp. 1138–1164 (selected works by women philosophers translated into English).
In Japanese philosophy : a sourcebook / edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, John C. Maraldo.
(Nanzan library of Asian religion and culture)
2011 University of Hawai‘i Press

PDF: Women Philosophers
Overview pp. 1115-1137.

Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) pp. 1138-1147.
Women and Thinking
Freedom to be a Full Person
Conditions for Reform
A Poet’s Mind

Hiratsuka Raichō (1886–1971) pp. 1148-1158.
Two Manifestos
The Rise of Women’s Movements
Neither Capitalism nor Marxism
Thoughts at the End of the War
The Value of Virginity

Yamakawa Kikue (1890–1980) pp. 1159-1164.
An Inquiry into Feminism

PDF: Riken no Ken. Zeami's Theory of Acting and Theatrical Appreciation
Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 331-345

PDF: Nishida and the Question of Nationalism
Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 203-209

PDF: Japanese Buddhism and Women: The Lotus, Amida, and Awakening
In: Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, Volume 8. 2019, Pages 83-133.

PDF: Masao Abe: D. T. Suzuki's Legacies and an "Academic Dharma Lineage" in North America
Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 28 (2008), pp. 111-113

PDF: D. T. Suzuki and the “Logic of Sokuhi,” or the “Logic of Prajñāpāramitā”
In: Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, Volume 8. 2019, Pages 589-616

PDF: Hiratsuka Raichō–Zen and Feminism
From: Japanese Buddhism and Women: The Lotus, Amida, and Awakening (extracts, pp. 123-128.)
In: Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, Volume 8. 2019, Pages 83-133.

PDF: Zen and Philosophy: An Intellectual Biography of Nishida Kitaro
by Michiko Yusa
Honolulu, 2002

PDF: Affirmation via Negation: Zen Philosophy of Life, Sexual Desire, and Infinite Love
In: The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy.
Edited and introduced by Michiko Yusa
Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, pp. 333-364.

Three thinkers who practiced Zen— Hiratsuka Raichō, D. T. Suzuki, and Nishida
Kitarō— are brought together in this chapter to speak about their philosophies of
life and sexual desire. The aim of such an arrangement is to articulate a possible Zen
“philosophy of peace.” The objective of this choice of topic is to delineate a kataphatic
dimension of Zen- inspired philosophy, which is often overshadowed by its
more familiar apophatic expressions of “emptiness,” “mu,” and “absolutely nothing.”
First, the kenshō (Zen awakening) experience of these three thinkers is examined
with the view that there seems to be a correlation between one’s kenshō experience
and one’s gaining insight into what “life” (seimei or inochi) is. Treated next is their
philosophies of life, including their discussions on sexual desire. Suzuki succinctly
states that sexual desire arises from the very source that turns itself into great compassion;
for Raichō women’s sexuality leads her to formulate the view that woman
has to be liberated qua sexed body, qua woman, and not just as an abstract “human
being.” Nishida takes the whole issue of the body as a fundamental philosophical
problem, and places desire and the body within the wider dialectical framework of
the individuals and the world. Desire, says Nishida, arises as the individual “mirrors”
the world, and it spurs one into action (praxis) and production of things (poiesis).
One’s activities in turn shape the “world” one lives in. Human actions construct the
world of history, while the world of history also shapes how one exists in the world.
Ultimately, Raichō, Suzuki, and Nishida each point to the reality of “love,”
or mahākarunā (great compassion), which, when applied as a social constructive
principle, has the potential of building a philosophy that averts conflict and
war. Moreover, what is meant in Zen by “dying” is far from the negation of life,
but “dying” to the ego- centered mode of being. Understood as such, negation is a
necessary step toward affirming life. Furthermore, mortality is cast in a spiritual
framework of eternal life. Thus, in the radical turnabout of the individual self via
“negation,” a key may be found for us to envision a more caring and “graceful”
society and world.

Appendix: Two Essays by Nishida Kitarō pp. 365-369
“The Beauty of Calligraphy” pp. 365-366
“On Japanese Short Poetry, Tanka” pp. 366-369
In: The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy
Edited by Michiko Yusa
Bloomsbury Academic, 2017