H. Gene Blocker is Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University. He is the author of Philosophy of Art; Aesthetics of Primitive Art; and World Philosophy, and coeditor of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics, with Zhu Liyuan. Christopher L. Starling teaches at Kobe Shoin Women's University.

"…a skillful interweaving of a large number of strands in the history of ideas. Countless distortions and roadblocks bedevil Western scholars trying to understand Asian texts and cultures, and only recently have we begun to get glimpses of the actual history of Asian thought. This is a welcome contribution to this important work of cross-cultural understanding, and provides a well-informed Western look at the influence of Chinese and Western philosophy on Japan." — Richard T. Garner, coeditor of Society and the Individual: Readings in Political and Social Philosophy"The book's intellectual freshness comes from presenting Japanese philosophy as structured by the concerns of mainline Western philosophy. Because of this it will be one of those books that you can give to your friends in the philosophy department when they ask, as they always do, whether there is any 'real' philosophy in East Asia. It is an engaging work." — John H. Berthrong, author of Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville

• 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE BUDDHIST PHASE 3. THE RISE OF TOKUGAWA CONFUCIANISM 4. ENCOUNTERING MODERNITY 5. BEYOND MODERNITY 6. CONCLUSION REFERENCES INDEX

H. Gene Blocker is Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University. He is the author of Philosophy of Art; Aesthetics of Primitive Art; and World Philosophy, and coeditor of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics, with Zhu Liyuan. Christopher L. Starling teaches at Kobe Shoin Women's University.

"…a skillful interweaving of a large number of strands in the history of ideas. Countless distortions and roadblocks bedevil Western scholars trying to understand Asian texts and cultures, and only recently have we begun to get glimpses of the actual history of Asian thought. This is a welcome contribution to this important work of cross-cultural understanding, and provides a well-informed Western look at the influence of Chinese and Western philosophy on Japan." — Richard T. Garner, coeditor of Society and the Individual: Readings in Political and Social Philosophy"The book's intellectual freshness comes from presenting Japanese philosophy as structured by the concerns of mainline Western philosophy. Because of this it will be one of those books that you can give to your friends in the philosophy department when they ask, as they always do, whether there is any 'real' philosophy in East Asia. It is an engaging work." — John H. Berthrong, author of Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville

• 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE BUDDHIST PHASE 3. THE RISE OF TOKUGAWA CONFUCIANISM 4. ENCOUNTERING MODERNITY 5. BEYOND MODERNITY 6. CONCLUSION REFERENCES INDEX