A winding path

Making such a strong statement in favor of HSS has not been easy. Merely three years previous, the mood at the ministry level — with backing from industry, facing crises in manufacturing and a predicted decline in national scientific prowess — was leaning toward reduction of investment in HSS research and education.

But a backlash among the academic community ensued, led in part by strong opposition from KyotoU scholars, who pointed to the nation’s long history and deep traditions in literature and the arts as clear examples of the core of Japan’s cultural strength, which have contributed to the enrichment of human civilization across the globe.

So in 2017 when KyotoU’s DNU proposal was approved by the education ministry MEXT, containing a statement of unequivocal support for HSS, a watershed was reached.

From the grassroots

Fast-forward to the winter of 2019. In his office lined with bookshelves stacked with volumes ranging from the study of optics to Buddhist thought, philosopher Deguchi huddles with Onishi, his deputy-in-command of HSS unit affairs, as they make final plans for the coming school year’s double symposia.

(For more on Deguchi’s book collection see youtu.be/V0xoSaNnVkU)

This ambitious start befits the high expectations surrounding the unit as it seeks to understand the roots of HSS in Kyoto, untangle the branches that have split into myriad directions in the decades since, and project a clear and unified vision for these disciplines moving forward.

“One important mission is the transmission of knowledge,” explains Onishi, “brining the fruits of what we have learned to the public.” Big symposia are a start, he elaborates, but smaller meetings, seminars, outreach to schools and local communities, and other grassroots endeavors, will be necessary as well.

Ultimately, individual unit members representing a spectrum of HSS fields will conduct these activities on a person-to-person level. The team shares a vision of not merely pooling knowledge, but of learning together with a wider community extending far beyond the bounds of the campus.

Understanding others

“Mutual understanding will be a key feature of our inquiry,” says Deguchi.

The role of HSS, he says, is dynamic: to live in other cultures, be steeped in other ideas, believe other faiths, and experience other lives. By then bringing these back into our comfortable, everyday existence, and going through the process of transmission described by Onishi, we can begin to realize the potential of HSS.

And where will this lead? Deguchi answers without hesitation: “To world peace.”

A foundation of meaning

KyotoU’s president Juichi Yamagiwa sees other connections as well. Himself a natural scientist and Japan’s foremost gorilla expert, he has come to see HSS as being a basis — and providing a moral framework — for the natural sciences. Lacking such a foundation, science and technology might simply run amok, ending in the destruction of the very humanity we seek to preserve.

It is a darker, more cautionary corollary to Deguchi’s vision, starkly illustrating the high stakes these academic endeavors entail. Yamagiwa, who has made a strong push nationally for forbidding the use of military funds in university labs, sees the fork in the path ahead as representing a clear moral difference.

Two down, more to come

As 2019 turns to autumn and the unit begins planning for its second year, Deguchi is optimistic. Dispelling earlier fears that their audacity might be met with skepticism or — even worse — indifference, the positive academic and public response to the meetings in April and August have renewed his enthusiasm and eagerness to continue and to expand.

Elsewhere on this page, details about both symposia can be seen in flyers from the meetings — depicted in manga form for the first event — as well as in excerpted remarks from the organizers.

The HSS unit plans more meetings and events in Kyoto and beyond as it continues its inquiry into an Asian Humanities, a field as diverse and dynamic as Asia itself. Updates (primarily in Japanese) are posted regularly on the unit’s website and social media, which can be found via a search for “ukihss”.