No.46 Minamiyama Elementary School Opening Commemoration Lecture

(Inagi Newsletter September 15, 2015 issue)

Minamiyama Elementary School is the newly established school, becoming the 12th school in the city, which opened on April 1st of this year. It was newly constructed within the area of the "Minamiyama East Land Readjustment Project," which is promoting good community development in a section of the Tama Hills that runs east-west through the central part of the city, and was designed based on three fundamental principles.
The first point is a "school that coexists with greenery and considers the environment," utilizing the rich natural environment of the hilly area. The second point is a "school that collaborates with the community" in line with new Community Development. The third point is a "disaster-resistant school" that takes advantage of earthquake-resistant ground.
The newly established Minamiyama Elementary School aims to become a "satoyama school" that is beloved by the local community, making the most of its rich natural hills and location. With this aspiration in mind, the school's monument has been made a statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya.
This statue was once installed in many schools, but it is rare to see it in newly established schools, and there are cases where it has been removed from existing schools. Kinjiro Ninomiya traveled around various regions in Tohoku, providing agricultural management consulting, and as a result, he successfully rebuilt the management of over 600 villages. However, unfortunately, his great achievements have been forgotten recently, and the significance of the statue seems to be misunderstood.
This time, we welcomed Dr. Mariko Nakagiri, the seventh descendant from Kinjiro, who obtained a doctorate in education from Kyoto University, as a lecturer. Although the time was limited, she gave an enriching lecture titled "Cultivating Rich Human Beings: Learning from the Life of Ninomiya Kinjiro," and I believe that many people were able to gain a better understanding of the philosophy of "Hōtoku."
The philosophy of "waterwheel thinking," which involves half compliance (knowing, observing well, accepting) and half resistance (countermeasures, ingenuity), is based on the idea of "repaying virtue." This idea emphasizes that "creating rich human resources is the beginning of everything," and I am convinced that this connects to the "satoyama education" that our school aims for.
We would like to express our gratitude once again to Professor Nakagiri for taking the valuable time to give a lecture on that day, and we thank the many citizens who came to the venue on that day.