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.
Information and photo courtesy of SGI-USA.
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