The organizers and promoters of the lectures included local town and district education associations, Buddhist groups, youth groups, women’s associations, business clubs, agricultural associations, and in remote areas, combined communities of three or four villages. There were also individuals such as heads of towns or villages, school prin-cipals, and groups of Philosophy Academy supporters. Each group was led by a school inspector of the respective prefecture and ac-companied by former students of the Academy and old friends of Enryō based in those areas. They received cooperation everywhere from graduates of the Academy and Keihoku Middle School and the venues were always visited by graduates, illustrious guests (who had donated large sums of money), and correspondence students who had studied from the Lecture Records. It is said that Enryō did not like to be welcomed or seen off but he was welcomed in elaborate ways everywhere he went. There were taiko drums booming, the flags of all nations flying on boats, children in line waving small Japanese flags, or lively trumpets to welcome him. The audience (who Enryō referred to as “the people”) was diverse and included men and women of all ages. Enryō did not restrict ac-cess and also spoke to toddlers and elementary school children. Alt-hough there were times when an audience did not come together due to the weather, the venues were often filled to capacity even when it clashed with a local sumo tournament. The lectures were almost al-ways a great success and attracted many people. This was partly due to the cooperation of organizers from both the public and private spheres, but also because Enryō’s presentations were so unusual. Meeting with the People 169
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