 Watsuji’s analysis of gen is of equal interest. He makes much of the notion of ‘betweenness,’ or ‘relatedness.’ He traces gen (ken) back to its earlier form, aida or aidagara, which refers to the space or place in which people are located, and in which the various crossroads of relational interconnection are established. Watsuji’s now famous former student, Yuasa Yasuo, observes that “this betweenness consists of the various human relationships of our life-world. To put it simply, it is the network which provides humanity with a social meaning, for example, one’s being an inhabitant of this or that town or a member of a certain business firm. To live as a person means…to exist in such betweenness” (Yuasa 1987, 37). As individuals, we are private beings, but as social beings we are public beings. We enter the world already within a network of relationships and obligations. Each of us is a nexus of pathways and roads, and our betweenness is already etched by the natural and cultural climate that we inherit and live our lives within. With the social aspect of self being more foregrounded in Japan than in the West (especially at the time Watsuji was writing), it is imperative, therefore, that one know how to navigate these relational waters successfully, appropriately, and with relative ease and assurance. The study of these relational navigational patterns—between the individual and the family, self and society, as well as one’s relationship to the milieu—is the study of ethics. 