Tomonobu Imamichi


Tomonobu Imamichi was a Japanese philosopher who studied Chinese philosophy.

Life

Imamichi taught in Europe as well as in Japan. Beginning in 1979 he was the president of the Centre International pour l'Étude Comparée de Philosophie et d'Esthétique and after 1997 of the International Institute of Philosophy. In 1976 he founded the journal Aesthetics.
He translated Aristotle's Poetics into Japanese and has written numerous books in Japanese. Imamichi was a supporter of communication between cultures. He characterizes Western philosophy as an attempt to achieve a God's eye view and Eastern philosophy as an attempt to be in the world. Imamichi sees in both stances two incomplete and complementary humanisms, and observes that since the publication of The Book of Tea, some Western philosophers have adopted a more Eastern stance while other Eastern philosophers have attempted to reach the Absolute or the Eternal.
Tomonobu Imamichi was the father of guitarist and songwriter Tomotaka Imamichi, pianist Nobuko Kawaguchi, biologist Yukiko Imamichi and psychologist Tomoaki Imamichi.