and pursued imperialism and colonialism through the Sino- and Russo-Japanese Wars. However, its militaristic trend developed to ultra-nationalism. Kita Ikki advocated the exclusion of the zaibatsu, senior statesmen and political parties and the establishment of government for direct connection with the emperor and the people. Yanagita Kunio was at the forefront of study of Japanese folklore. He named members of the general public who are not political leaders and intellectuals as “jomin”. Other folklorists are Minakata Kumagusu, Yanagi Muneyoshi and Orikuchi Shinobu. In pre-war Japan, German philosophy was eagerly studied and introduced. However, from the late Meiji to Taishō period, Kyoto School attempted to harmonize Western thought with Eastern thought such as Zen Buddhism. Nishida Kitaro established an original thought by fusion of Zen and Western thought. His thought is called Nishida philosophy. He insisted on pure experience in which there is no opposition between subjectivity and objectivity. His ontology derived from absolute nothingness. Watsuji Tetsuro criticized Western selfish individualism. His ethics says human beings are not in an isolated existence but related existence. He insisted that individual and social beings should be aware of their own individuality and social membership. He is also well known as his Climate and Culture in which he studied the relationship between the natural environment and local lifestyle. Contemporary Japanese philosophy After World War II, many academic philosophers have published books on Continental philosophy and American philosophy. Among those, Ōmori Shōzō, Wataru Hiromatsu, Yasuo Yuasa and Takaaki Yoshimoto created original works under the influence of Marxism, phenomenology and analytic philosophy. Ōmori Shōzō created a unique monist epistemology based on his concepts of "representation monism", "double depiction", and "language animism". Wataru Hiromatsu developed his theory of "multi-subjective ontological structure of the world". Yasuo Yuasa advanced a new theory of the body influenced by Merleau-Ponty and the body image found in Chinese medicine. Takaaki Yoshimoto is famous for his "shared illusion theory" and various philosophical essays on Japanese culture. Today, such scholars as Kojin Karatani (literary theory), Hitoshi Nagai (solipsism), Shigeki Noya (analytic philosophy), Masahiro Morioka (philosophy of life), Motoyoshi Irifuji (analytic philosophy) are considered to be characteristic philosophers in the Japanese academy. See also Budō Giri (Japanese) Grace – "itsukushimi" Haibutsu kishaku Hakkō ichiu Hermit – e.g., Yoshida Kenkō, Kamono Chōmei Kami Kokutai Ma (negative space) Maruyama Masao – "Bamboo whisk" culture and "octopus pot" culture Nihonjinron Shame society Wabi-sabi Yamato-damashii Taoism in Japan William