Inoue Enryo

A Buddhist philosopher and educator from the Meiji and Taisho periods. Born on February 4, 1858, at Jikoji Temple of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism in Uramura, Santogun, Echigo Province (now Nagaoka City). His childhood name was Kishimaru, later Shujo, and after becoming a monk he changed his name to Enryo. His pen name was Hosui. He studied Chinese classics under Ishiguro Tadanori, and after graduating from Nagaoka Western School, Higashi Honganji Teachers' School, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo, he wrote Shinri Konshin (The Golden Needle of Truth) (1886) and An Introduction to Buddhism (1887) in an effort to warn against Christianity, Westernization, and the corruption of Buddhist monks. He also organized the Philosophical Society and the National Studies Association, and founded the Tetsugakukan (later Toyo University) in 1887 (Meiji 20). He also built the Tetsugakudo in Nakano, Tokyo, where he enshrined the four great sages, Shakyamuni, Confucius, Socrates, and Kant. In his later years, he wrote Lectures on Monster Studies to deny superstition, and was known as the Monster Doctor. In Buddhism A Living Treatise, he argued that the philosophy of the Kusha school was consistent with materialism, that the arayashiki of the Hosso school was consistent with the absolute subjectivity of Kant and Fichte, that the unification of these was the Middle Way thought of Tendai, and that Mahayana thought was the same as the Western theory of greatest happiness. He preached the superiority of Buddhism over Christianity, and this had a great influence on the Buddhist world in the Meiji era, marking the beginning of a revival of Buddhism. He died in Dalian, Liaoning Province on June 5, 1919, while traveling in China.

[Kaneda Taiyo May 19, 2017]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

明治・大正時代の仏教哲学者、教育家。安政(あんせい)5年2月4日、越後(えちご)国（新潟県）三島(さんとう)郡浦村（現、長岡市）の浄土真宗大谷派慈光寺に生まれる。幼名は岸丸、のちに襲常(しゅうじょう)、得度して円了と改名した。号は甫水(ほすい)。石黒忠悳(いしぐろただのり)より漢籍を学び、長岡洋学校、東本願寺教師学校、東京大学哲学科を卒業後、キリスト教や欧化的風潮、仏教僧侶(そうりょ)の腐敗に対して、『真理金針(しんりこんしん)』（1886）、『仏教活論（序論）』（1887）を著して警醒(けいせい)に努めた。また哲学会、国家学会を組織、1887年（明治20）には哲学館（後の東洋大学）を創立した。また東京・中野に哲学堂を建て、釈迦(しゃか)、孔子、ソクラテス、カントの四聖を祀(まつ)った。晩年は迷信否定のため『妖怪学講義録(ようかいがくこうぎろく)』を著し、世に妖怪博士と称された。『仏教活論』の主張は、倶舎(くしゃ)の哲学は唯物論に、法相(ほっそう)の阿頼耶識(あらやしき)はカントやフィヒテの絶対主観に合致し、これらを統一したものが天台の中道(ちゅうどう)思想であること、大乗思想は西洋の最大幸福説と同一に帰するとすることなどで、キリスト教に対して仏教の優位を説き、明治仏教界に多大の影響を与え、仏教復興の端緒となった。大正8年6月5日、中国旅行中、遼寧(りょうねい)省大連(だいれん)で客死した。

［金田諦応　2017年5月19日］

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