This study was an attempt to examine the scope of life as presented by Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801)in A Farewell Address to To Bunyo on his Return to Hizen, a treatise on medical philosophy at the age of 27, and The Two Shrines of Ise: An Essay of Split Bamboo (Ise Niku Sakitake no Ben), an essay written in the last years of his life. The unique characteristic of his medical philosophy consists in his understanding that immeasurable vital energy (ki) cannot be supplemented, but only nourished in nature. The means of nourishing vital energy in daily life include eating light, constant labor, and the doing away with worrying oneself with thoughts. The mission of physicians consists in administering medicine so as to nourish vital energy upon sensing the power of the genuine vital energy (shin-ki) in patients. As a physician, Norinaga comprehended that the origin of medicine lies in the respect for vital energy, the power of which a physician is able to sense in patients. As a man of letters, Norinaga grasped the genuine way of life in which people feel respect for the blessings and beneficence of Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun of the Heavens, and Toyouke no Okami, the originating spirit of grains and food upon which life depends. Respect for unseen essential powers, such as vital energy and spirit, underlies his vision of life as consistently expressed in A Farewell Address to To Bunyo on his Return to Hizen and The Two Shrines of Ise: An Essay of Split Bamboo (Ise Niku Sakitake no Ben)
