| 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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