Kaiseki Sada

A monk and nationalist in the early Meiji period. He was born on April 8, 1812, to a Shinshu Honganji temple in Taneyama Village, Yatsushiro County, Higo Province (Toyocho Minami, Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture), and was later adopted by Mr. Sada, the head priest of Shosenji Temple in Oshima, Akita County, Higo Province (present-day Kumamoto City). At the age of 16, he went to Kyoto to study Buddhism at Honganji Temple, and further trained at Tofukuji Temple, Nanzenji Temple, and other places. He was well known as an extreme proponent of the rejection of imported goods and a campaigner for such ideas as lamps destroying the nation and the unnecessary use of ink in bookkeeping. For this reason, he is often seen as a conservative reactionary in the wrong sense. It is true that he was active in national affairs at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, and even after the Meiji Restoration, he advocated the geocentric theory based on the Buddhist astronomy of Mount Sumeru. However, according to his main work, "Cultivation Economics" (1878-1879), he was quite knowledgeable about foreign affairs and did not see foreign trade as unnecessary at all. Having studied medicine, he understood economic circulation as the circulation of blood in the human body, and emphasized the importance of the correspondence between the flow of money and the flow of wealth, as well as the role of consumption in the economic circulation, making his arguments unique to the economic theory of the time. Although some of his arguments were too stubborn, in an atmosphere of disregard for Japan, he recognized the unique culture of Japan, favored domestic products, and took an active role in the movement to protect domestic industries, so it would be inappropriate to dismiss him as a mere stubborn conservative reactionary. His other main works include "Point-taking Communication Theory" (1877) and "Cultivation Economics New Journal" (1881). He died on December 9, 1882, while on a preaching tour in Takada, Niigata Prefecture.

[Tada Akira September 16, 2016]

Honjo Eijiro Collected Works 2: History of Japanese Economic Thought (1971, Seibundo Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

明治初期の僧、国粋論者。文化(ぶんか)15年4月8日肥後国八代(やつしろ)郡種山村（熊本県八代市東陽町南）の真宗本願寺派の寺院の子として生まれ、のち同国飽田(あきた)郡小島(おしま)（現、熊本市）の正泉寺住職佐田氏の養子となった。16歳のとき京都に出て本願寺で仏教の学を修め、さらに東福寺、南禅寺などで修行した。ランプ亡国論、簿記印記(インキ)無用論などにより、極端な舶来品排斥論者、同運動者として著名。ために悪しき意味の保守反動論者とみなされがちである。確かに、幕末には国事に奔走、維新後も仏教的天文学須弥山(しゅみせん)説により天動説をも唱えたが、主著『栽培経済論』（1878～1879）によれば、外国の事情にもかなり通じ、外国貿易をまったく不必要とはみていない。また医学を修めた彼は、経済循環を人体の血液循環になぞらえて把握、貨幣の流れと財の流れの対応の重要性や消費の経済循環に果たす役割などを強調するなど、当時の経済論のなかで特色ある議論を展開している。固陋(ころう)にすぎた主張があるけれども、自国軽視の風潮のなかで、日本固有の文化を認識し、国産品の愛用、国内産業保護の運動に挺身(ていしん)した彼を、単なる頑迷な保守反動論者として葬り去ることは妥当ではないであろう。主著にはほかに『点取交通論』（1877）、『栽培経済問新誌』（1881）など。明治15年12月9日新潟県高田を巡教中客死した。

［多田　顯　2016年9月16日］

『『本庄栄治郎著作集2　日本経済思想史』（1971・清文堂出版）』

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