Philosopher Kuki Shuzo (1888-1941) was the first Japanese scholar to use Western aesthetic theory in the interpretation of his native culture. A colleague of Bergson and Sartre, Kuki’s oeuvre has been called “aesthetic existentialism,” and bears similarities to the theories of Baudelaire and Verlaine.
Kuki’s principal work, “The Structure of Iki,” explores the 18th century concept of iki, roughly equivalent to chic. In Hiroshi Nara’s book on the philosopher, entitled “The Structure of Detachment: The Aesthetic Vision of Kuki Shuzo,” iki is presented as a form of “urbane stylishness” similar to dandyism, since “both sensibilities maintained tacit codes of dress and behavior and flourished around the same time.”
More information on the book can be found here.