Chuki Tominaga

Background

Chuki Tominaga was born in Osaka. Original personal name: Tokumichi. His father Yoshiharu was a distiller of soy sauce and a reputable Confucian scholar.

Education

Chuki Tominaga later succeeded to his father's business but continued studying the classics under Sekian Miyake till he was expelled for criticizing Confucianism. He was then only 16 years old.

Career

Chuki Tominaga later astounded Buddhist circles by completely translating Buddhist sutras in 8,000 leaflets despite a lung disease. He later founded a private school at Ikeda (Hyogo Prefecture) and began preaching the theory known as Okiria-no-fumi (oldman’s letters) which said that none of the three great religions (Shintoism, Confucianism and Buddhism) could be propagated unless man was sincere and his morals upright. These views were later incorporated by Yukichi Fukuzawa in the Imperial Rescript on Education.

Connections

Father:

Yoshiharu