Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Flower of Culture
GREAT RELIGION always gives birth to great culture. This is an unfailing law of history. When the spring sun melts the winter snows and stirs awake the sleeping earth, young shoots push forth and grow, eventually bursting into brilliant flower. In the same way, when the compassionate light of Buddhism thaws the frozen ground of the human heart, bringing it back to life, an exquisite flower blossoms as a truly humane culture.
The wide propagation of the Daishonin's teaching is a noble undertaking toward transforming the world into a beautiful realm of peace and culture — an undertaking based on human revolution, on profound transformation in the lives of human beings, who are ultimately responsible for all social development.
In 1962, Shin'ichi Yamamoto planted many seeds for cultural growth in the broad earth of the people — the earth that had been cultivated through the Soka Gakkai's dynamic drive to spread Nichiren Buddhism.
Through his diligent efforts, those seeds quickly sprouted. The Clean Government Political Federation was officially launched in January, while July saw the formation of the parliamentary Clean Government Group. In the sphere of scholarship, the Oriental Science Institute (later the Institute of Oriental Philosophy) was established in January as an independent but related organization. And in November, the institute's journal, Oriental Science, began publication.
On August 1, some one thousand educators gathered at the Suginami Civic Hall in Tokyo for the Soka Gakkai's historic first Education Department National Convention. Shin'ichi met this day with great excitement. He gazed upon the sea of faces in the audience from his vantage point on the hall's stage. Each teacher's expression conveyed a determination and commitment to fulfill an important mission.
The education department had been officially formed at the Soka Gakkai headquarters general meeting on May 3, 1961, the first anniversary of Shin'ichi's inauguration as president. Katsu Kiyohara was then named the department leader, and, on June 10, some three hundred teachers assembled at the headquarters for the department's inaugural meeting.
In his editorial for the July 1961 issue of the Gakkai's monthly study journal, the Daibyakurenge, which he titled "The Mission of the Culture Bureau," Shin'ichi shared his high expectations for the activities of the bureau's education department.
"The true spirit of 'establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land,'" he wrote, "is to strive, based on Buddhist ideals, for the realization of a peace that combines individual happiness with social prosperity."
Sounding a warning, he said: "From ancient times to the present, in every nation and civilization around the world, history has clearly shown us that education determines the prosperity or decline of a people and a nation. The effects of education reveal themselves only twenty or thirty years after. Thus, education determines the success or failure of the next generation and as such is an extremely important issue.
"But what is the present state of education in our country? More than a decade after World War II, our educational system still lacks a clearly defined ideal or goal and continues to stumble in the dark. This is lamentable."
SHIN'ICHI let it be known that the education department members had united at this time in a shared awareness of the undesirable direction in which Japanese education was heading.
He continued: "I now declare proudly that a long-awaited beacon of hope is at last sending a brilliant light into the darkness of Japan's educational system. We possess the noble principles formulated by that great educational pioneer, our first president, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. And we have many fine educators who have transformed their lives through faith in the Mystic Law, through the ongoing process of human revolution.
"The effectiveness of education is determined by the substance of its ideals, the character of its teachers. I am convinced that our education department members are true educators who possess both the superb educational principles entrusted to us by Mr. Makiguchi and outstanding human qualities honed through their Buddhist practice.
"I hope that they, as practitioners of the Mystic Law, will be firmly committed to actualizing the unsurpassed teachings of Nichiren Daishonin based on the principle [from the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings] that 'immeasurable meanings derive from the one Law,' and that they will advance boldly, confident that they are pioneering great new frontiers as educators. I also hope they never forget their role, not only as superlative teachers in the classroom but as educators of profound humanism dedicated to working among the people and guiding them toward true happiness."
The establishment of the education department also fulfilled the wishes of Shin'ichi's late mentor, Josei Toda. When Toda rebuilt the Soka Gakkai after the war, he deleted the word education from the organization's name — no longer calling it Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creating Education Society) but simply Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society) — because he believed that the Gakkai's main purpose was to carry out a religious revolution.
This did not mean, however, that Toda had turned his back on or forgotten about education. He knew that genuine religious revolution meant human revolution; when people were revitalized through faith, they would become the rich soil from which an ideal society would be cultivated. They would become active in all areas of society, including education, business, and government, and bring forth the abundant fruits of humanism.
While devoting his full energies to achieving his membership goal of 750,000 households, thus securing a solid foundation for the Soka Gakkai's continued development, Toda confided to Shin'ichi in great detail his hopes and visions for the future. "As Mr. Makiguchi's disciple," he said, "I want to earn world recognition for my mentor's wonderful educational philosophy. Someday, we must form an education department to contribute to society through the humanistic educational methods set forth by Mr. Makiguchi."
On November 18, 1953, the tenth memorial [ninth anniversary] of Makiguchi's death, Toda had published his mentor's Philosophy of Value in Japanese. He also had it translated into English and distributed to universities and research centers overseas — a manifestation of his resolve to make Makiguchi's educational theories and methods known as widely as possible.
Shin'ichi took Toda's words to heart. He waited many years until the time was right to carry out his mentor's wish. After founding the education department, he sought opportunities to meet with its members and encourage them.
IN SEPTEMBER 1961, education department lapel pins were created. On numerous occasions, Shin'ichi Yamamoto presented the new pins personally, sharing with the recipients his great hopes for them and their activities.
On one occasion, he said: "I hope you will become a pivotal force in education and spread throughout society an understanding of the need for humanistic education. If each of you can gather a circle of ten other teachers who, like you, care about the happiness of their students and are committed to practicing humanistic education, it will have a tremendous effect on education in this country, and Japan will definitely change as a result.
"This pin is a symbol of the honor and the responsibility of individuals committed to working tirelessly for the people, for society, and for Buddhism." His words resounded with his deepest hopes and prayers.
Hearing later from Katsu Kiyohara that membership was increasing steadily, Shin'ichi said: "Each of our department members is immensely capable. They each possess an incredibly important mission. Mr. Toda often used to say that in our attitude toward education, we should learn from the Jewish people, because they respect teachers and education so highly.
"A story I heard shows this high regard. One day a rabbi visited a certain town and asked the mayor to show him the town's defenses. The mayor led the rabbi to the fort, where a platoon of soldiers was stationed.
"After reviewing the troops, the rabbi turned to the mayor and said: 'I still haven't seen this town's defenses. Why didn't you take me to the school?'
"He maintained that teachers are the heroes with whom rests the true defense of a land or nation. I agree completely. Teachers defend not only their nation but the future of all humankind. For this reason, I ask that you do your best to raise the precious members of our education department with unstinting devotion and earnestness. Whatever you do for them, you are doing for society, for Japan, and for the world. I am also planning to make education my life's ultimate undertaking."
Shin'ichi put great effort into developing the education department because, earnestly contemplating the country's future, he recognized that education was the highest priority. Juvenile delinquency had become a major social problem in Japan. Reaching a peak in 1951, it eased for a few years; but from 1955, it had begun to climb again. In 1961, police arrested some 950,000 minors. The problem had become very serious.
FROM that time on, juvenile delinquency continued to soar. It was distinguished by a significant drop in the age of juvenile offenders, an increase in delinquency among children of middle-class families, and an upsurge in gang activity. In the past, the main factor contributing to juvenile delinquency had been poverty. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese society had entered its period of rapid economic growth, and the standard of living had risen markedly. In spite of this, however, juvenile delinquency was on the rise.
The government regularly talked about "producing educated citizens," but when the Ministry of Education issued a white paper titled "Japanese Growth and Education," it became eminently clear just what kind of educated citizens it had in mind. The report advocated that education was a highly effective investment in terms of its "contribution to economic growth." In all fairness, the paper admitted that this was merely one perspective and also spoke of "the necessity [for Japan] to have a clear vision of the kind of people it hopes to foster in the future and to consider the mission of education from a broad viewpoint." Yet it failed to elaborate any further on what that vision of future generations or education's mission might be.
Though it may have been only one perspective, the report revealed the sad reality of a Japan that put increased productivity and economic growth before all else, completely losing sight of its true priorities. The Japanese education system failed to address the true purpose of education and learning; all that mattered was producing a capable workforce for Japan's economic development. This, regrettably, was the state of the Japanese education system. Socrates said it is not enough just to live but that we must live well. Japanese society, which had placed supreme value upon economic achievement, however, avoided this most crucial of all issues and turned a deaf ear to questions of purpose and meaning. This was the greatest failing of postwar Japan, hidden beneath its surface prosperity. Before World War II, the role of education had been to produce citizens "useful to the State." Though a democratic educational system had been instituted after the war, its main purpose soon became — as unintentionally revealed in the white paper — the production of citizens who could "contribute to the nation's economic progress."
While the slogans may have changed, education was still designed to shape people to the needs of the state, whether military or economic. When education is viewed as no more than a means for assuring the nation's prosperity, people, too, are simply reduced to a means to an end. No thought was given to what education meant to the children receiving it, and this very real flaw of Japan's postwar educational system was intimately related to the growing problem of juvenile delinquency.
WHAT IS the fundamental purpose of education? Tsunesaburo Makiguchi declared, "The purpose of education is to enable children to live happy lives." He felt strongly that the happiness of children takes priority over national profits or agendas. Out of this belief, Makiguchi placed the focus of his value-creating education on developing in each student the capacity to attain happiness.
He said that happiness is founded on the pursuit of value, and he advocated beauty, benefit, and good as the values human beings should seek to create in their lives. According to Makiguchi, the creation of value constitutes true happiness. The mission of education is to nurture many people capable of creating value in society and working toward their own and others' happiness.
In the foreword to The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy, he explained his passionate desire to present his theory of value-creating education to the world:
I am driven by the frantic desire to prevent the present deplorable situation where ten million of our children and students are forced to endure the agonies of cutthroat competition — perpetrated by the difficulty of getting into good schools, the "examination hell," and the competitive struggle for jobs after graduation — from continuing into the next generation. So I have no time to be concerned with the shifting vagaries of public opinion.
A deep compassion and love for children — for humanity — burn brightly in these words. This heart is the true spirit of education.
The application of value-creating education would require not only reforms in educational theory and teaching methods but a radical change in attitude and approach — in other words, a human revolution — in educators themselves. Since teachers are the single most important influence in a child's educational environment, it is essential that they continue to educate themselves throughout life.
Asserting that teachers are educational engineers, Makiguchi stated: "Education is a science and an art of unparalleled difficulty and can never be successful without teachers of the highest quality. The object of its concern is the most precious and irreplaceable treasure in the world — life itself."
He also described how he thought teachers should be: "Unless you have the courage to be an enemy to evil, you cannot be a friend to good. A person blinded by considerations of self-interest cannot distinguish between good and evil, and is not qualified to be an educator. And one who can make that distinction but does not have the strength to act on it is worthless as an educator."
The youthful Josei Toda, in a free and dynamic fashion, put the spirit of value- creating education as advocated by Makiguchi into practice. Many youth of outstanding humanity and diverse talent graduated from his private school, the Jishu Gakkan.
Shin'ichi Yamamoto wanted to pass on the first and second presidents' legacy to the Soka Gakkai Education Department members. Observing the growing lack of direction in Japanese society, he couldn't help feeling how important the department's mission was.
A LITTLE MORE than a year after its 1961 formation, the education department's membership was fast approaching three thousand. One thousand representatives gathered for the department's first national convention on August 1, 1962. This marked a fresh beginning toward actualizing value-creating education.
The convention began a little before one o'clock. There were experiences, greetings by the education department leader, Katsu Kiyohara, and guidance from a senior leader. Last was a speech by Soka Gakkai President Yamamoto.
"My sincerest congratulations to you on this significant day!" Shin'ichi began. "While sitting here listening to the other speakers, I thought how happy Mr. Makiguchi and Mr. Toda would be if they could be here to witness this fine gathering of educators. Mr. Makiguchi was a great pioneer in the field of education, and Mr. Toda was also a teacher.
"I, however, am not a teacher. In fact, I was always scolded by my teachers at school for not studying hard enough. I think you can imagine how embarrassing it is for me to be standing up here before so many teachers today!"
The audience roared with laughter.
Shin'ichi then proposed that the education department publish an educational journal that would feature its members' experiences as educators, their research on value-creating education and its practical application in the classroom, and other topics. This idea was greeted enthusiastically. Shin'ichi next touched on the role of education department members within the Soka Gakkai.
"Because the Gakkai is growing so rapidly," he said, "occasionally, due to our difficulty in providing thorough guidance to each member, some people make extreme statements when they try to explain Nichiren Buddhism. As a result, misunderstandings are caused in society about our organization as a whole.
"Even in the family, it's often difficult for parents to give thorough guidance to their children. So you can imagine how challenging this can be in our organization, which has tens of thousands of new households joining every month.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The New Human Revolution, Volume 7"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Soka Gakkai.
Excerpted by permission of World Tribune Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
