 As a student at Himeji Middle School, he displayed a passion for literature, especially Western literature, and “is said to have been fired with the ambition to become a poet like Byron” (Furukawai 1961, 217). He wrote stories and plays, and was coeditor of a literary magazine. When he entered the First Higher School in Tokyo, even though he had decided to pursue philosophy seriously, he remained “as deeply immersed in Byron as ever and attracted chiefly to things literary and dramatic” (Furukawa 1961, 218). He is said to have had several excellent teachers at this school, and his interests were considerably expanded in the arts and in literature. The Headmaster, Nitobe Inazō, was of particular importance. James Kodera writes that “Nitobe’s book on Bushidō, The Soul of Japan, began to awaken Tetsurō not only to the Eastern heritage but also to the study of ethics” (Kodera 1987, 6). Still, while this early glimpse into the forgotten depths of his own culture may have planted the seeds of later inquiries and insights, Watsuji gained sustenance and insight at this time in his academic career from his reading in Western Romanticism and Individualism. 