木村敏記念
臨床哲学文庫

One of my primary expectations for this collection is its function as an archive. While Volume 8 of The Complete Works of Bin Kimura includes a "List of Complete Achievements," it almost entirely lacks the papers and books Professor Kimura published in Western languages. The holdings of this archive (Bin Kimura Memorial Archive of Clinical Philosophy) will serve as vital supplementary material to that list.

Professor Kimura likely preserved offprints of his Western-language papers, and his books—such as Écrits de psychopathologie phénoménologique (1992) and Zwischen Mensch und Mensch. Strukturen japanischer Subjektivität (1995)—are essential additions. One might assume these works contain nothing new since they are translations of Japanese editions, but that is not the case. In the former, he points out that the Japanese term jiko (self) cannot be fully captured by the English "self" or the German "Selbst," and has, to put it extremely, almost no relation to the French soi. In the latter, he remarks, "The difficulty of conveying Japanese monistic ways of thinking to foreigners can only be understood by those who have actually struggled to do so." These are fundamental insights that emerged precisely because he was writing in Western languages.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that Lectures on Clinical Philosophy (Sōgensha, 2012), published after the Complete Works, is not included in the original achievement list. These lectures serve as Professor Kimura’s own introduction to his psychiatry and contain views that slightly revise the perspective of the Complete Works, making them indispensable for Kimura studies.

There are likely rare books as well. For instance, there should be a presentation copy featuring a dedication from Martin Heidegger to Professor Kimura. This was a gift Heidegger gave to both the Professor and me when we visited him together in 1969.

While Heidegger’s influence on Kimura’s psychiatry is immense, Nishida’s philosophy holds an equal, if not even greater, significance. Professor Kimura once even stated, "The more I read [Kitarō Nishida], the more I found that what I was trying to see and say was already expressed so precisely in his sharp reflections that it actually hindered my own thinking."

The work of studying Kimura’s psychiatry in comparison with Heidegger’s thought, Nishida’s philosophy, French and German phenomenology, and so on, will surely begin here at the "Aida Library." The archival function of this collection gives us great hope for such scholarly developments.

My encounter with Professor Bin Kimura began before I became a doctor. When I visited Professor Tadao Miyamoto at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, he told me, "Since you are a graduate of Kyoto University, you don't need to come here—you have Professor Kimura right there." I remember when I first met Professor Kimura and told him I was reading Freud, he remarked, "With Freud, after all, it’s all about the death drive, isn't it?"

Eventually, I took up a post at Yagoto Hospital and joined the department at Nagoya City University. Soon, figures like Hiroshi Shima, Shigeru Suzuki, Mari Nagai, and Takashi Ikuta arrived at Yagoto one after another, and both clinical practice and research flourished. Many of the clinical cases Professor Kimura published in the Psychopathology of Schizophrenia series were patients he treated at Yagoto Hospital.

Our reading groups were also very active; it was at a Yagoto reading group that Professor Kimura, Mr. Shima, and I translated Blankenburg’s The Loss of Natural Self-Evidence. Through that connection, I studied abroad with Blankenburg for two years. A fond memory is when Blankenburg visited Japan and came to see Professor Kimura and me in Hokuriku, where we all went to Katayamazu Onsen together.

In our reading groups, Professor Kimura never skipped over difficult passages; he would think until he was satisfied, and if he still didn't understand, he would clearly say, "I don't understand this." He was a man of no pretense. He was also broad-minded, welcoming anyone who wished to come and answering even rude or elementary questions with great care.

Despite possessing such a vast library, he was not what one would call a mere "know-it-all." However, once a theme captured his interest, he would tackle it with terrifying concentration, reaching a profound understanding in a very short time—a feat that never ceased to amaze me.

During his time in Nagoya, I feel Professor Kimura emphasized aida (the "in-between") more than the "principle of individuation." In that sense, giving this collection the nickname "Aida Library" is truly fitting. After moving to Kyoto, he was again influenced by Nishida’s "One-in-Many, Many-in-One" and "Absolute Contradictory Self-Identity." I was deeply moved when he began to speak of the "Collective Subject," drawing inspiration from musical ensembles and migratory birds. I believe his time in Nagoya was the starting point for those ideas.

Rereading Professor Kimura’s works, I am surprised to find new discoveries every time. Perhaps because of his background in music, the perfection of his writing as a "work of art" is outstanding. His reputation will undoubtedly continue to grow. Even in his later years, he continued to produce magnificent new works, yet there must have been more he wished to write. I hope that with the establishment of this collection, young people will unearth those remaining threads and carry them forward.