was a Japanese industrialist and Buddhist missionary.

Early life

Born in

Hiroshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...

, Numata was the third son of a priest of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism. He studied at Kyoto Heian Junior High School (today Heian High School) and was ordained a priest and sent to the United States as a missionary. He studied mathematics at

Hollywood High School Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Histo ...

and obtained a degree in economics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. During his time in the United States, he established ''Pacific World'', a publication dedicated to propagating Buddhist teachings and furthering understanding between the United States and Japan. Despite financial assistance from

Nishi Honganji is a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist temple in the Shimogyō ward of Kyoto, Japan. It serves as the head temple of the sub-sect Honganji-ha. It is one of two Jōdo Shinshū temple complexes in Kyoto, the other being Higashi Hongan-ji, which is the hea ...

and

Shibusawa Eiichi was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism". He spearheaded the introduction of Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double-en ...

, the publication ran out of funds and closed after four years.

Business career

He returned to Japan at the age of 33 and was employed as a statistician by the Japanese government. In 1936 he left his government job to found a company,

Mitutoyo is a Japanese multinational corporation specializing in measuring instruments and metrological technology, headquartered at Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa.micrometer Micrometer can mean: * Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw * American spelling of micrometre The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...

s. The company was successful, primarily due to army contracts and later as a result of the Japanese economic miracle, and eventually diversified into a variety of precision measuring instruments.

Missionary career

In 1965, Numata founded the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism (Ja: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, generally known in English by its initials BDK), with a mission of distributing Buddhist teachings around the world. Its book ''Teachings of Buddha'' has been distributed in Japanese hotel rooms just as the

Gideon Bible Gideons International is an Evangelical Christian association for men founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Gideons' primary activity, along with their wives in the Auxiliary, is "encouraging each other to do the work of the Lord, focusin ...

is often found in American hotel rooms. In 1986 Numata initiated a project to translate the entire

Taishō Tripiṭaka The Taishō Tripiṭaka (; Japanese: ''Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō''; “ Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka”) is a definitive edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon and its Japanese commentaries used by scholars in the 20th century. It was edited by ...

into English, an endeavor which is expected to require as long as a century to complete. Numata remained active in the propagation of Shin Buddhism throughout the Western world, establishing temples in Virginia and Germany as well as providing various Buddhist scholarships.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Numata, Yehan 1897 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Japanese businesspeople Hollywood High School alumni Japanese Buddhist missionaries Japanese company founders Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests People from Hiroshima Prefecture Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class University of California, Berkeley alumni