On Takeuchi Yoshimi’s Aesthetics of “Eschatology”

Abstract

Scholars have attempted to find a common pattern of thought to summarize Takeuchi Yoshimi’s arguments on the relationship between subject and knowledge, literature and politics, and event and history, regardless of their diversity, under several key words. These attempts highlight Takeuchi’s primary concerns. However, existing studies of Takeuchi rarely point out his idiosyncratic understanding of the “eschatological,” which is both esthetic and horizon-determining because Takeuchi invariably tends to refer to “eschatology” despite his efforts to avoid theorizing it systematically. Considering that the literature on Takeuchi hardly does justice to this aspect of his writing, the present article intends to emphasize it. The article argues that “eschatology” emphasizes the element of contingency in the existential process of things, as well as its transformations, developments, and disappearance. Furthermore, this article focuses on the unpresentable nature of things in a state of so-called “nothingness.”

Key words： Takeuchi Yoshimi; eschatology; Yasuda Yojūrō