HATANO SEIICHI

born July 21, 1877, Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture, Japan died Jan. 17, 1950, Tokyo Japanese scholar and author of pioneering works on Christianity and Western philosophy that were widely studied in Japanese universities. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1899, Hatano became the first professor to teach the history of Western philosophy at Tokyo Semmon Gakko (now Waseda University). He studied in Germany from 1904 to 1907 and returned to become a lecturer in philosophy at Tokyo University and later at Kyoto University. Upon his retirement from Kyoto University in 1947, he served as president of Tamagawa Gakuen University until his death. Hatano's Seiyo tetsugakushi yo (Outline of the History of Western Philosophy), written in 1907, was the first serious attempt in Japan to produce a survey of Western philosophy and soon became required reading for all university students. During the following years, Hatano did a series of studies on Christianity, which, in place of the usual polemics, attempted a serious philosophical approach. His major works on Christianity are: Kirisuto-kyo no kigen (1909; Origin of Christianity), Seiyo shukyo shioshi (1921; History of Western Religious Thought), Shukyo tetsugaku (1935; Religious Philosophy), and Toki to ei'en (1943; Time and Eternity).