Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) was born in the village of Arahama in present-day Niigata Prefecture, a small port on the western coast of Japan. He spent much of his youth in Otaru, a town in Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido. At the time, Otaru was undergoing a rapid transformation into a model town in the process of Japan’s modernization and industrialization. While working as an errand boy at the local police office, Makiguchi read and studied widely, and eventually gained entrance to the Hokkaido Normal School, a teachers training facility in Hokkaido’s capital, Sapporo.
It may be that these early experiences of life in a small community whose maritime industry engendered an awareness of the wider world and later in a provincial town undergoing a rapid process of modernization prompted Makiguchi to develop a deeply rational interest in geography as a field of study. He also experienced first-hand the pronounced gap in opportunities between the elite in whose hands power was concentrated and the disempowered masses. These experiences exerted a strong influence on Makiguchi as he settled on a career as an educator.
After qualifying as a primary school teacher, Makiguchi taught for some years in Sapporo, and was also an active member of local teachers’ associations, but in 1900 he left Hokkaido for Tokyo. In 1903, at the age of 32, he published his first major work, The Geography of Human Life.
Until he was appointed principal of a Tokyo elementary school in 1913, Makiguchi supported himself and his family through his writing and a variety of jobs in the educational field. He edited educational periodicals and established a venture promoting correspondence courses for young women denied opportunities for formal education; he taught at a school for foreign students in Tokyo and developed textbooks for the Ministry of Education.
He was an early advocate of the idea of community studies, which he felt should be accorded a central place in public school education. He engaged in exchanges with a number of prominent researchers involved in developing the systematic study of local communities and cultural practices.
It was as the principal of a succession of elementary schools–including some in the poorest areas of Tokyo–between 1913 and 1932 that Makiguchi refined his educational theories into practical form. As an educator, Makiguchi was devoted to the happiness of children, and worked assiduously to ensure that economically disadvantaged children were given equal opportunities. His approach repeatedly led him into conflict with local politicians and vested interests, and he was frequently the target of attempts to oust him. Nevertheless, the schools of which he was principal, especially Shirokane Elementary School, became renowned for the high quality of the educational experience they offered.
As Makiguchi approached the age of 60, his life reached several key turning points. In 1928 he embraced Nichiren Buddhism; in 1930 he published the first volume of The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy, and in 1932 his long teaching career came to an end.
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