I focus from a materialist point of view on issues in early modern and modern Japanese and East Asian intellectual history and philosophy. More precisely, I explore the encounters and mutual transformations of epistemic orders in the East Asian Arena in the age of globalizing capitalism. This arena also constitutes a formidable laboratory to put to the test and to refine the theory and method of historical materialism that informs my approach. Currently, I am co-authoring an application for an ERC Synergy-Grant on the shifting conceptualizations of nature in later Edo-Period Japan (1600 – 1868). I am doing research on the poetology of Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912) as a critique of the temporalities of emerging capitalist modernity, and on the philosophical economics of the Marxist philosopher, Kakehashi Akihide (1902-1996), the latter as part of research on neglected, or understudied aspects of Marxist philosophy in 20^th century Japan.