Yehan Numata (rendered in Japanese as 沼田 恵範 - Numata Yehan, in Chinese as 沼田惠范 / 沼田惠範 - Zhaotian Huifan, in Tibetan as ནུ་མ་ཏ་ཡེ་ཧན། nu ma ta ye han Numata Yéhen, and in Sanskrit as नुमतयेहन् - Numatayehan, universally revered across Japan, United States, China, Korea, Vietnam, India, Tibet, Europe, and the global Buddhist world as the visionary industrialist, devout Jodo Shinshu layman, and supreme modern Buddhist philanthropist who founded Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai and endowed the BDK English Tripitaka Series), acclaimed throughout 20th century world Buddhist history as the pioneer who united precision industrial innovation with boundless Dharma generosity, stands as a towering exemplar of lay Bodhisattva leadership. With his year of birth on April 12, 1897, in Kumano in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, into a devout Jodo Shinshu temple family of the Honganji tradition, and his year of death on May 5, 1994, at the age of ninety-seven, Yehan Numata awakened early to the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha (c. 563–483 BCE) regarding anicca, dukkha, and anatta, taking lifelong refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha while dedicating his entire life to ethical conduct, generosity, merit, mindfulness, and liberating wisdom.

During his youth in the early 20th century, Yehan Numata traveled to the United States to pursue higher education—earning both his bachelor's degree and master's degree in mathematics and statistics at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1920s, where he supported himself through humble manual labor, edited a pioneering English-language journal titled The Pacific World to foster cross-cultural understanding between Asia and the West, and experienced a profound spiritual vow to share the universal message of Buddhism in clear English across the globe.

Returning to Japan with a deep conviction that modern scientific precision and ancient spiritual wisdom must work hand in hand for the betterment of humanity, Yehan Numata founded the Mitutoyo Corporation (Mitutoyo Manufacturing Company) in 1934 in Tokyo—starting with the domestic production of precision micrometers and building the enterprise into the world's premier manufacturer of precision measuring instruments—with the explicit overarching purpose of generating sustainable resources to fund the global dissemination of the Dharma.

After witnessing the catastrophic devastation of World War II and the atomic bombing of his native Hiroshima Prefecture, Yehan Numata devoted his personal wealth to establishing Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai (BDK, the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism) in Tokyo on December 8, 1965 (Bodhi Day, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening beneath the Bodhi tree), alongside compiling and publishing the non-sectarian anthology The Teaching of Buddha (Bukkyō Seiten), which has since been translated into more than forty languages and distributed in tens of millions of copies to hotel rooms, libraries, hospitals, and universities worldwide.

In 1982, Yehan Numata launched his most ambitious scholarly legacy—the BDK English Tripitaka Series—committing his endowment to translating the essential core of the one-hundred-volume Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo (Taisho Tripitaka, edited in Japan between 1924 and 1934 by Takakusu Junjiro, 1866–1945, and Watanabe Kaigyoku, 1872–1933) from classical Chinese into authoritative modern English, and establishing the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research in Berkeley, California, in 1984 (later overseen with his son Toshihide Numata, 1932–2017, and Yasunari Kato).

Through this monumental translation program, Yehan Numata made foundational scriptures of the Chinese Tripitaka and Tibetan Tripitaka accessible to English-speaking students and practitioners—including the Saddharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra, Taisho Number 262, corresponding to Toh Number 113 in the Tibetan Tripitaka), the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra (Diamond Sutra, Taisho Number 235, and Toh Number 16), the Prajnaparamitahrdaya Sutra (Heart Sutra, Taisho Number 251, and Toh Number 21), the Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra (Taisho Number 475, and Toh Number 176), the Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Taisho Number 360, and Toh Number 115), the Amitabha Sutra (Taisho Number 366, and Toh Number 115), the Vairocanabhisambodhi Tantra (Taisho Number 848, and Toh Number 494), and the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Taisho Number 2008) by Huineng (638–713).

Simultaneously, Yehan Numata endowed permanent Numata Chairs in Buddhist Studies and lecture series at over a dozen of the world's leading universities across United States, Europe, and Asia—including University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Chicago, University of Oxford, Leiden University, McGill University, University of Toronto, and University of Vienna—while grounding his personal spiritual life in Jodo Shinshu entrusting faith (Shinjin) in Amitabha Buddha (as expounded by Honen, 1133–1212, and Shinran, 1173–1263) harmonized with Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka dialectics regarding emptiness (शून्यता - śūnyatā; སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། stong pa nyid Tongpanyid) and dependent origination, Asanga and Vasubandhu's Yogacara phenomenology, and innate Buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha) aligned with Maitreya's Uttaratantra Shastra (Taisho Number 1611, and Toh Number 4024).

Passing peacefully away in 1994 at the age of ninety-seven after transforming modern global Buddhist scholarship and lay philanthropy, Yehan Numata left a living legacy that continues to thrive across Japan, United States, China, Korea, Vietnam, India, Tibet, and Europe into the 21st century. Anchoring every act of generosity, merit, loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, right view, non-attachment, skillful means, and universal bodhicitta in Shakyamuni Buddha's Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path to extinguish the three poisons across the six realms, Yehan Numata stands forever as a radiant exemplar of the Middle Way to complete Buddhahood.