Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (牧口 常三郎)

Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (牧口 常三郎)
Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, Sōka 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 Hokkaidō, Japan's northernmost island, at the age of 14. Working his way through school, he graduated from Sapporo Normal School (today's Hokkaidō 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 ('A 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 Sōka Kyōikugaku 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 Sōka Kyōikugaku Taikei, has been translated now into English, Portuguese, French and Vietnamese.
In 1928, Mr. Makiguchi and his close friend and disciple, Jōsei Toda, began to practice the Buddhism of Nichiren Shōshū. Mr. Makiguchi's encounter with this school of Buddhist thought took his life onto an even deeper and broader dimension, resulting in the establishment of the Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai ('Value-Creation Education Society'), the predecessor to today's Sōka 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 Buddhism.
During World War II, he staunchly opposed Japan's military government because it sought to impose the doctrine of State Shintō through strict control of religions and thoughts inimical to its war effort.
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 Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai, he died in prison.
Mr. Makiguchi is remembered by members of Soka Gakkai International to this day. During morning and evening gongyō members take a moment to remember the first three presidents of Sōka Gakkai: Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (President from 1930 to 1944), Jōsei Toda (1946–1958), and Daisaku Ikeda (1960–present).
A system of "Soka schools" in Japan, several independent secondary schools elsewhere in the world, as well as two universities (Soka University of Japan and Soka University of America) have been created based on Makiguchi's pedagogy.
As a Religious Reformer
Makiguchi converted to the Buddhism of Nichiren in 1928. Nichiren Buddhism, grounded in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the laws of cause and effect, struck a deep resonance with Makiguchi's existing way of thinking; he found no contradictions between its tenets and the scientific and rational approach to which he was dedicated.
The organization Makiguchi founded, the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, sought to promote his views on value-creating education, which Makiguchi saw as fundamentally compatible with the interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism passed down through the Nichiren Shoshu school with its head temple at Taiseki-ji. Originally made up of teachers and educators, the organization expanded over the course of the 1930s to embrace people from all walks of life, and its purpose evolved from the promotion of educational reform to promoting reform of society based on reform of religion. Its activities centered on small gatherings in members' homes, as well as periodical large-scale meetings in public venues.
As Japan's involvement in World War II escalated, the authorities sought to enforce universal adherence to state-sponsored Shinto, with worship of the emperor at its core. It was Makiguchi's resistance to this, even when prompted by the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, that led to his imprisonment and ultimately his death in prison.
[From: http://www.tmakiguchi.org/ The texts in this section were developed by Andrew Gebert, researcher at the Institute of Oriental Philosophy.]