Anesaki is credited as being the father of religious studies in Japan, but also wrote on a variety of subjects including culture, literature, and politics.

He received higher education in the Third High School, and entered the Tokyo Imperial University in 1893.

During this time he studied under Deussen, Hermann Oldenberg, Gerbe, and Albrecht Weber in Germany, as well as Thomas William Rhys Davids in England.

He spent 1913 to 1915 as a visiting scholar at Harvard University lecturing on Japanese literature and life.

He translated Schopenhauer's "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" into Japanese and explored terms of understanding between Buddhism and Western Philosophy.