It was with a real sense of loss that the IAAP received the news of the passing away of Professor  Ueda, one of our esteemed Honorary Members, in June 2019.

After studying philosophy at Kyoto University, Shizutheru Ueda went to Germany where he received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Marburg with a thesis on the Western Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart. He later specialized in the thought of Kitaro Nishida and studied Zen Buddhism through the categories of Western philosophy, while being a Zen practitioner.

Through his numerous writings he inquired into the truth of living as man by bridging the Western and Eastern Tradition; starting from the study of German mysticism, and then meeting with Daisetz Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and Kitaro Nishida’s philosophy.

As a researcher but also as a practitioner, he focused on experiences of self. Especially, his study of the “Ten Ox-herding Pictures” is very widely known. It provides inspiration about the process of human psychological development and transformation.

He was one of the influential speakers at Eranos (East and West Round Table Conference), indicating that his thoughts were closely connected with Jungian psychology. Professor Ueda had a very close relationship with the late Prof. Hayao Kawai, the first Jungian analyst in Japan. In that sense, we can evaluate his work as one of indispensable foundations for the development and deepening of Jungian psychology in Japan.

He was professor emeritus of Kyoto University and one of the most important persons in the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan. He was a world-renowned philosopher and a member of the Japanese Academy. Through his career of more than 50 years Prof Shizutero Ueda has made an exceptional contribution to the world. 

SOURCES: Recommendation letters for Honorary membership of the IAAP supplied in 2015 by Prof Yasuhiro Tanaka and Prof  Masamichi Adachi, both members of AJAJ.