To provide a method for crushing a brittle material and a crusher which can satisfactorily provide high quality to the crushed material, high production capacity, workability, economical efficiency and versatility or the like.

Two or more kinds of crushing energy by different crushing systems are synchronously generated distributed upward and downward in a vertical cylindrical treatment vessel 21. Moreover, as crushing energy of the upper side when the inside of the treatment vessel 21 is divided into the upper side and lower side, one or more kinds of crushing energy selected from among horizontally rotating crushing energy for precrushing with a horizontally rotating crushing device 41, horizontally rotating crushing energy for coarse crushing with a horizontally rotating crushing device 42, and horizontally rotating crushing energy for fine crushing with a horizontally rotating crushing device 43 are generated, and as crushing energy of the lower side, rotating crushing energy for grinding with a fixed grinding device 58 and a rotating grinding device 52 is generated. Through the period from the feeding of the brittle material, which falls by gravity, into the treatment vessel 21 through the inlet 22 of the vessel to the arrival of the material to the outlet 23 of the vessel, two or more kinds of the crushing energy are provided to the material to be crushed for crushing.