Transitional Identity: Becoming, Nothingness, and Event in Heidegger and Ueda

Abstract

Referring to Martin Heidegger’s thought, this paper argues that identity should be understood not as self-preservation or formal self-coincidence (A = A), but as a dynamic process constituted through becoming, transition, wandering, and distress. Rather than confining identity to Heidegger’s later conceptual-historical discussions, the paper reconstructs it through an experiential structure running across his work—an “inability to fully identify.” Methodologically, the paper reconstructs Heidegger’s account of identity along three interrelated dimensions: the provisional and ongoing identity of becoming Dasein; a differential identity articulated within the difference between entities and Being; and the eventual identity of thinking and Being as mutual belonging (Ereignis). On this basis, the paper examines Shizuteru Ueda’s interpretation of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures as a phenomenology of self-existence culminating in absolute nothingness. Through a comparative analysis centered on becoming, nothingness/bottomlessness, and event, the paper clarifies both affinities and differences between Heidegger’s and Ueda’s accounts, proposing a framework for rethinking identity beyond self coincidence and for advancing East–West dialogue.