STUDIA PHÆNOMENOLOGICA XVI (2016) 489–518 Chōra in Heidegger and Nishida John W.M. Krummel Hobart and William Smith Colleges Abstract: In this article I discuss how the Greek concept of chōra inspired both Martin Heidegger and Nishida Kitarō. Not only was Plato’s concept an important source, but we can also draw connections to the pre-Platonic understanding of the term as well. I argue that chōra in general entails con- cretion-cum-indetermination, a space that implaces human existence into its environment and clears room for the presencing-absencing of beings. One aim is to convince Nishida scholars of the signifcance of chōra in Nishida’s thought vis-à-vis the other Greek concept of place, topos. Another is to convince Hei- degger scholars who accuse him of neglecting chōra that, to the contrary, there is evidence of Heidegger’s appropriation of this concept. Te point is to show that chōra is signifcant to the thinking of both while correcting certain mis- readings and to show its relevance to us today. Keywords: Nishida, Heidegger, place, region, chōra. Te possibility of any being to be in distinction from and in coexistence with another—including that of subject and object, self and other—presup- poses some sort of a primordial spacing. Martin Heidegger in his later years (post-1930) looked to that ontological fact in terms of the clearing for the presence of beings. Just as much as being is the event whereby beings come into their own—Heidegger named this Ereignis, “en-owning,” “a-propriation”—he also understood this to be a clearing (Lichtung) of space, an opening, for be- ings. Nishida Kitarō 1 in like manner looked to a primal place (basho) for be- ings that he understood in terms of an absolute nothing (zettai mu). Both in that respect point to a place or space as the wherein of beings—whether 1 Troughout this essay I will follow the traditional Japanese ordering of personal names that places the family name frst and the given name second. Hence in the case of Nishida Kitarō, Nishida is his family name and Kitarō is his given name.