SOURCE: "Life is Tragic: The Diary of Nishida Kitaro," in Monumenta Nipponica: Studies on Japanese Culture, Vol. XX, Nos. 3-4, 1965, pp. 335-58.

In the following essay, Knauth traces Nishida's personal development as recorded in his diary.

On June 7, 1965 it was twenty years since the death of the man who has been called "the most demanding thinker Japan ever produced."¹ On this occasion Nishida's publisher is issuing a new edition of his complete works.² Though parts of his work have been in the meantime translated into English, German and Spanish,³ his true significance in world perspective will probably not be fixed till a comprehensive, globe-circling history of modern ideas can bewritten. What is usually known of his work, even in Japan, is Zen no kenkyu (A Study of Good), but one first step on a long journey in quest of philosophical analysis.

The following article, written before a comprehensive...