Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
About Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Soka Gakkai's first president, was born in Kashiwazaki,
a small village in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on June 6, 1871. Adopted by
the Makiguchi family, he moved to Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island,
at the age of 14. Working his way through school, he graduated from Sapporo
Normal School (today's Hokkaido University of Education). First employed
as an assistant teacher at a primary school affiliated with his alma mater,
he later taught high school and served as a dormitory superintendent. After
moving to Tokyo, he served as principal in six primary schools, from 1913
to 1932.
During those years, he devoted much consideration to the relationship between
life and education, developing his theories on the creation of value, the
happiness of the individual, and the prosperity of society at large.
Typical of his work is his first book, Jinsei Chirigaku (The Geography of
Human Life), published in 1903. In it, he developed unique and progressive
ideas on the relationship between people's lives and their geographic location.
For over a period of five years from 1930, he also published the 4-volume
Soka Kyoikugaku Taikei (The System of Value-creation Pedagogy). Based on
his long career as an educator, this series of books sets forth his astute
observations and far-thinking proposals for reforming the Japanese educational
system.
An example of his proposals was the creation of an educational system comprising
a partnership of school, home and community, each of which had responsibility
for a specific part of the educational task. In this system, a child would
spend half day in school and the other half in apprenticeships and other
types of work activities at home and in the community befitting the nature
and needs of the child. Mr. Makiguchi felt that implementing his proposed
system would change bored, apathetic learners into eager, self-directed
students.
The theory and practice of value-creating education, which aim to instill
in an individual an appreciation for the highest values, have attracted
the attention of educators outside Japan as well. The Soka Kyoikugaku Taikei,
has been translated now into English, Portuguese, French and Vietnamese.
In 1928, Mr. Makiguchi converted to Nichiren Shoshu--at the time, the only
Buddhist sect which had faithfully embraced the teaching of Nichiren. Mr.
Makiguchi's encounter with the highest school of Buddhist thought took his
life onto an even deeper and broader dimension, resulting in the establishment
of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creation Education Society), the predecessor
to today's Soka Gakkai. It can be said that Mr. Makiguchi created and developed
a grassroots movement as the foundation of a lasting peace, an objective
he perceived at the very heart of Nichiren's Buddhism.
During World War Two, he staunchly opposed Japan's military government because
it sought to impose the doctrine of State Shinto through strict control
of religions and thoughts inimical to its war effort. Moreover, he was particularly
severe in his remonstration with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood for cowardly
compromise of its faith in face of governmental pressure.
In 1943, he was arrested and imprisoned as a "thought criminal."
Yet, in spite of being subjected to harsh interrogations, he never retreated
from his beliefs; indeed, the 72-year-old former principal continued to
assert the value of freedom of religion, the most fundamental of all human
rights. On November 18, 1944, the anniversary of the founding of the Soka
Kyoiku Gakkai, he died in prison.
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