The idealism and introspection implied by this decision were early evidence of issues which would have resonance in the characteristic mindset of the mature man.

[1] A graduate in philosophy of Tokyo Imperial University, Kuki spent eight years in Europe to polish his knowledge of languages and deepen his already significant studies of contemporary Western thought.

[2] At the University of Paris, he was impressed by the work of Henri Bergson, whom he came to know personally; and he engaged the young Jean-Paul Sartre as a French tutor.

"[3] The following semester (Summer, 1928) he attended Heidegger's lecture on logic in the light of Leibniz (HGA 26) and his seminar on Aristotle's Physics.

Kuki took up a teaching post at Kyoto University, then a prominent center for conservative cultural values and thinking.

He became an Associate Professor in 1933 (Shōwa 8); and in that same year, he published the first book length study of Martin Heidegger to appear in Japanese.

[6] In this context, it is noteworthy that the German philosopher explicitly referenced a conversation "between a Japanese and an inquirer"[7] in On the Way to Language (Aus einem Gespräch von der Sprache).

As a single Japanese man within an encompassing "white" or non-Japanese society, he considered the extent to which he became a being who lacked necessity.

[11] From the mid-thirties, while Japan drifted towards totalitarianism and the war in China dragged on, Kuki seemed not to be much disturbed by the growth of fascism.