ABSTRACT
The term ‘philosophy’ (tetsugaku) was coined by Nishi Amane (1829-97) in 1874, with the express purpose of distinguishing this new foreign import from Confucianism and Buddhism.1 Nishi, famous as the first Japanese to give lectures on Western philosophy in Japan, was a leading figure in the importation of Western Learning, and was one of the first Japanese intellectuals to be sent to Europe to learn more about its culture (1862 and 1865). It is to Nishi that historians usually trace the assertion that before the nineteenth century there was no philosophy in Japan: ‘in our country there is nothing that deserves to be called philosophy; China too does not equal the West in this regard’ (NAZ:181/Havens 1970:108-9).
