In his highschool period he became interested in Zen and especially D. T. Suzuki's interpretation of Zen Buddhism and was less interested in grades. He not only read Japanese works but concerned himself with Western resources.[3][1] He read works from authors like Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Emerson, Carlyle, Strindberg and was intrigued by works like the Bible and Nishida's "Thought and Experience."[1]
Keiji Nishitani (西谷 啓治, Nishitani Keiji; February 27, 1900 – November 24, 1990) was a Japanese philosopher. He was a scholar of the Kyoto School and a disciple of Kitarō Nishida. In 1924, Nishitani received his doctorate from Kyoto Imperial University for his dissertation "Das Ideale und das Reale bei Schelling und Bergson". He studied under Martin Heidegger in Freiburg from 1937 to 1939.
