TAKAHASHI Kurō, the head of the temple congregation, said that 10 Looking at his study log for 1872 it mentions “self-study,” i.e. read-ing books on his own. It was at this time that Enryō first saw a map of the world in a Chinese translation of Abbreviated Explanation of the World, written by American missionary Richard Quarterman WAY. After that he read all ten volumes of Western Affairs by FUKUZAWA Yukichi, who had visited and experienced America and Europe first hand. There Enryō learned about current Western politics, econom-ics, and culture. Now that he had gotten his hands on information that compared Japan and the West for the first time, Enryō’s interest turned strongly toward concentrated self-study. When we look at his reading history we can see that it extents to twenty-seven different works. Thinking of the publishing circumstances at the time we can easily imagine Enryō lost in concentration soaking up information. On the other hand, when Enryō entered adolescence the idea of inheriting the temple started to become a problem for him. In his twilight years he spoke on his ordination at the age of thirteen, saying, “My father issued the ordination request without consulting me.” Judging from this comment we can assume that at some point he had discussed his future path with his father. Ordination meant he would become a candidate for overseeing a temple and enter the path to becoming the next abbot. From his father’s perspective, the natural pattern would have been to study Buddhism after having finished with the Chinese classics. This likely meant some level of friction with Enryō, who was obsessed with the world and the West. “Enryō was strong-willed,” meaning that he had a stubborn side. We
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