Dr. Kazuta Kurauchi established his theory of the sociology of culture under the influence of German sociology of 1920s, especially Max Scheler's sociology of knowledge and forms of sympathy. Dr. Kurauchi insisted upon the importance of the idea that sociology of culture forms a part of general sociology and social culture (institutional culture) should be excluded from the objects of the study of culture. He distinguished “sociology of culture” from “sociology of society” by the difference of the character of culture treated in the respective fields. Since social culture means patterns of social action and ways of life among people, we should treat it in sociology of society. This view is different from that of American sociology of culture, which, closely cooperating with anthropology, chooses the ways of human life as its main subject.
Dr. Kurauchi was the first Japanese scholar who studied Japanese art from the sociological viewpoint. According to Dr. Kurauchi, the characteristic way of expression in Japanese art is a symbolic mode, which is realized by the similarity between artists' and appreciators' experience in human community and in their attitude towards nature. Dr. Kurauchi reached the conclusion that Japanese art is gemeinschaftlich in its essence.