About TM MAGAZINE
Since 2019, the thinker Takahiro Mitsui has carried out fieldwork across the Japanese archipelago on his own, digging across ancient Japan (Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun), archaeology, history, myth, Shinto, Confucianism, folklore, spirituality and genetics, drawing close to the origins of the Japanese people and asking what a human being is and how to live. In an age when AI is taking over human work and expression, what do we hold as valuable, and for what do we live? Centered on his thought of muka (無化) and furi (不離), he asks the question anew through the experience of touching the land with the body, the memory carved into history, and our relations with others. Thinking, tracing one's own roots, watching a film: each is a path that leads to the inward question, "Who am I?"
Project 2049, a weekly essay by the philosopher Takahiro Mitsui
In English, every Friday at 5 p.m. Japan time. No likes, no comments, no rankings. Just the essay and you.
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LATEST ISSUEVol.27Returning to the Original Substance of the Mind: Knowledge and Skill Are Only a MeansOctober 27, 2026BACK NUMBERS
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27 issues
- Returning to the Original Substance of the Mind: Knowledge and Skill Are Only a MeansForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- AI Is Already Over: The Unmanned Society Comes NextForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- All Glory Is Fleeting: AI Is Handed Down Through the Generations, Like Gut MicrobiotaForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- AI Is the Culmination of the Modern West: The Battle for the Realm Begins NowForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Yayoi People of Doigahama: How the Genome Overturned the Story of Their ArrivalForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Isotake and the Karakami Shiragi Shrine: The Gateway into Ancient Izumo Lay in IwamiForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Virtue of Toju Nakae, Alive in OzuForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Names of Ancient Gods Travel with Place: The Structure Revealed by the Kuroshio and Its Princess DeitiesForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Japanese People as Seen Through COMT VariantsForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Struggle of the Kojiki and the Struggle of Reading GenesForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- How Autosomes, Mitochondrial DNA and the Y Chromosome Differ in Ancestry ResearchForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- What Makes Something Japanese? | The Refined Art of Nullifying the "Obstructive Subject"Forest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Way of Yangmingism | Building Thought to Give Birth to CultureForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- What Learning Really Is: It Begins Not with Being Taught but with AwakeningForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Genes of the Japanese People, Unlike Any in the WorldForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Western Way | Provoke Again and Again, Scatter Reasons to Be Attacked, Then Strike While Crying FoulForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- A State Without Sovereignty Has No Reason to Exist | Ukraine Is Japan's TomorrowForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Restore the Kunitsukami | Rousing the Gods Held Down by ConcreteForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Seeing the Face of One Single Person, and Welcoming Them | The Source of the Japanese HeartForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Where the Gods Dwell | From the Open Sea off SanrikuForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Rift Between Japan and Korea, Seen from Seoul | The Speed CHAGEE Speaks OfForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Model Citizen Is Society's Sickness | The Village Worthy Is the Thief of VirtueForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Emperor Ojin, Raised Up by Consensus | Ancient Kawachi, Where Native and Immigrant FusedForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- The Queen Who Lived Where the Yayoi Met the KofunForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- Turning Fifty Will Not Teach You the Mandate of HeavenForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- An Ancient History of Hemp | It Was Never the Name of a PlantForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400
- What Is Thought? | The Art of Shifting the GroundForest of Thought ／ Kunitsukami Project ／ KINEMA 2400