Ryōsuke Ōhashi was professor of aesthetics at Osaka University before his retirement. He is an important representative of the Kyōto School and particularly distinguished in the fields of phenomenology, aesthetics, German idealism, Heidegger, Japanese philosophy oriented by Buddhism, and intercultural philosophy. He has presented a draft of an aesthetics based on Japanese traditions, and is an internationally active as well as respected philosopher who has published several books also in German. His expertise in the field of East Asian aesthetics, especially the path arts, will provide lasting support for the inter- and transcultural research perspectives of the Research Training Group. The research collaboration will strengthen the Research Training Group's ties to the Herder-Kolleg - Center for Transdisciplinary Cultural Research and the DFG Reinhart Koselleck project "Histories of Philosophy in Global Perspective".

Ryōsuke Ōhashi studied philosophy at Kyōto State University and at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. There he received his doctorate with the thesis "Ecstasy and Serenity - On Schelling and Heidegger." In 1983 he habilitated at the Julius Maximilians University in Würzburg. From 1975 he worked as a professor of philosophy at various universities, including Shiga Medical University in Ōtsu, Kyōto University of Technology, and Ryūoko Buddhist University in Kyōto. He also held a professorship in aesthetics and philosophy of art at Osaka University. Since 2014, he has been the director of the Japanese-German Cultural Institute in Kyōto.

Ryōsuke Ōhashi has been a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche, the Kolleg Morphomata at the University of Cologne, the Research Institute for Philosophy in Hanover, and the Forum Scientarium in Tübingen, among others. For his achievements he was awarded the Philipp Franz von Siebold Prize and the Humboldt Medal of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

At the annual conference "Üben üben" of the Research Training Group, the Mercator Fellow will present a lecture on the topic "Übung der Kunst – Kunst der Übung. Tragweite des Leib-Körpers im japanischen ,Kunstweg‘". He will also conduct a research workshop with the PhD students on "Theorie und Praxis des No-Theaters in Zeamis Text ,Kakayo‘ (Der Blütenspiegel)". Together with Rolf Elberfeld, he will work on "Zeami, altjapanische Texte zur Ästhetik des No-Theaters" (publication in the series "Aesthetic Practice. Transdisciplinary Perspectives", W. Fink Verlag) and Keiji Nishitani's aesthetics as well as on philosophy from a trans- or intercultural perspective and will also bring these topics into teaching at the department.