A Comparison of Watsuji's Fūdo and Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus: Questioning an Equivalence between Japaneseness and Postmodernity

Abstract

A Comparison of Watsuji's Fūdo and Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus:Questioning an Equivalence between Japaneseness and Postmodernity Harumi Osaki (bio) Presenting Japanese philosophy in terms of its similarity to so-called French postmodern thought seems to be a common approach in recent times. Aside from the still-open question "What is postmodern thought?," a popular summary of postmodernism (and one often invoked to draw parallels with Japanese philosophy) is that there is no such thing as subject or object, only relations—or more precisely, genuine relationality that exists prior not only to the subject and object but also to their concrete relations. Also invoked as a similarity is the postmodern criticism of the Cartesian subject, characterized by its solipsism. The centrality of this subjectivity in Western modern philosophy and science is said to result in humanity's selfish and dogmatic domination of others, either human or nonhuman, as mere objects. It is thus argued that if we stop privileging the subject over the object and instead draw upon the relationality that is prior to both, humanity will avoid such evils and can realize more open and fairer relations with others. A not-insignificant number of scholars assert that Japanese philosophers have theorized such a concept of relationality and thus provided a vision for the harmonious coexistence of everyone or everything, either in opposition to or independent of Western modernity. Along these lines, it is argued that French postmodern thought and Japanese philosophy are aligned in their challenges to Western modernity. What is troublesome here is that these comparisons and associations of formal similarities between Japanese philosophy and French postmodern thought often end up reconfirming commonly accepted cultural stereotypes of the East and the West, for example, that the rational subject is an essentially Western agent or that the essence of Oriental culture consists of the absence of such a subject. Furthermore, there is a recurrent claim that Japanese philosophy—or Japanese tradition itself—heralded Western postmodernity. While some connect postmodernism (as we understand it [End Page 107] today) to early-twentieth-century Japanese philosophical thought, others arbitrarily discern postmodern elements in Japanese tradition and history dating back hundreds or even thousands of years. Many academics tend to accept such conclusions as a strategy for increasing the status of non-Western philosophy, which is still undervalued compared to Western philosophy. However, this approach also entails a number of problems, which have largely been disregarded. While the consideration of Japanese philosophy or tradition through the lens of its similarities with French postmodern thought may seem to offer a perspective freed from ethnocentrism, this is not necessarily the case. Quite often, claims that spotlight the similarities between Japanese philosophy or tradition and French postmodern thought imply that Japan is intrinsically postmodern and, as such, that it not only exceeded Western modernity but also foreran Western postmodernity. Here, the link between Japanese philosophy or tradition and French postmodernism is used as a means to buttress Japano-centrism rather than to undermine it.1 On the other hand, analysis of French postmodern thought through the lens of its similarities with Japanese philosophy and tradition may seem to counter the Western-centrism that dominates the field of philosophy. However, this is too optimistic of an interpretation, as many postmodern thinkers' depictions of non-Western cultures are full of Orientalist prejudice and misplaced idealization.2 Nevertheless, French postmodern thought's alleged similarities with Japanese philosophy and tradition provide a pretext that allows such prejudice and idealization to persist and be tolerated. Thus, the emphasis upon apparent similarities between Japanese philosophy and tradition and French postmodern thought does not help counter Japano-centrism or Western-centrism in either discipline, but rather nurtures these phenomena stealthily. Moreover, when the alliance between Japanese philosophy or tradition and French postmodern thought is celebrated under the banner of the criticism of Western modernity, it is largely disregarded that allegedly "postmodern" characters of Japanese philosophy or tradition are often interlaced with oppressive power structures that have remained unchallenged since before so-called modern times. Such celebration also disregards the fact that criticism of the West from within it still often presupposes the exploitation of the cultural Other in...