to improve the lives of these people, and in the rush to modernize in the realms of politics and economics they had left them behind. Through the popularization of education in the somewhat unu-sual field of philosophy Enryō helped to open up new ways of think-ing for Japanese people. He sought to reinvent and improve Japanese people, encouraging them to embrace ambition and vitality. He opened up new paths by teaching people the methods they needed in order to acquire rational wisdom when engaged in all sorts of en-terprises. Taking up the challenge to expand from school education to social education was a grand initiative based on this sense of pur-pose. It was a path that would connect to today’s internationalized and information-based society. Many of the words Enryō left behind still ring true, but the maxim he frequently shared with his students, “Carve your own destiny,” is especially memorable. Enryō frequently used the Japanese character for “living (活),” as can be seen in the kanji compounds for “living discussion,” “living books,” “living learning,” and “living society.” When we consider the meaning of this character, we can see Enryō’s interpretation of it in other modern Japanese phrases, such as “job hunting,” “looking for a marriage partner,” and “making prepara-tions for one’s own death.” Enryō, who lived through the period of new civilization and internationalization that was the Meiji, person-ally experienced the development of Japan and the world. Summa-rizing these developments as the world underwent aggressive ad-vancement, Enryō described the age that would come next as that of a “living society” (while never forgetting that along with progress there would also be regression). One hundred years have passed since 195
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