MA as Ethical Relationality: Rethinking Temporality, Technology, and the Sacred in Contemporary Japanese Philosophy

This paper reconfigures the Japanese philosophical concept of MA (間)—commonly rendered as “interval,” “gap,” or “space between”—into a robust ethical, ontological, and epistemological framework for the contemporary world. Drawing from traditional Japanese aesthetics, Zen metaphysics, and relational philosophies, this work explores how MA operates as an ethical force of attunement, co-presence, and sacred temporality. Engaging thinkers such as Watsuji Tetsurō, Kitarō Nishida, Yasuo Yuasa, and contemporary scholars like Hiroshi Yamaguchi and Yuk Hui, the essay positions MA as a non-anthropocentric ethics in tune with Indigenous, Afrocentric, and feminist new materialist thought. The analysis further bridges MA with issues in AI, posthuman design, environmental ethics, and cognitive justice, offering a way of being that resists extractivist rationalities and recuperates rhythm, silence, and reverence for the in-between. Ultimately, this paper argues for a relational and sacred reworlding—where MA becomes the horizon for ethical design, political imagination, and planetary care.