Bunyiu Nanjio

Nanjō Bun'yū (1849 to 1927) was a Buddhist priest who is remembered as one of the most important modern Japanese scholars of Buddhism. As a young man Nanjo studied classical Chinese texts and Buddhist doctrine, and was sent to Europe in 1876 to study Sanskrit and Indian philosophy under European scholars who included Max Muller in England. In England he met a Chinese Buddhist, Yang Wenhui, and assisted him in acquiring some three hundred Chinese Buddhist texts that had been lost in China,and were reprinted in the Yang printing house in Nanjing. Returning to Japan in 1884 and until his death Nanjo served as a professor or leader of several Buddhist seminaries and universities.