No.46 Minamiyama Elementary School Opening Commemoration Lecture

(Inagi Newsletter September 15, 2015 issue)

Minamiyama Elementary School is the newly established school, the 12th in the city, which opened on April 1 of this year. It was newly constructed within the area of the "Minamiyama Eastern 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 nature and is environmentally conscious, utilizing the rich natural environment of the hilly area. The second point is a school that collaborates with the community in line with the new Community Development. The third point is a concept of a disaster-resistant school that takes advantage of the earthquake-resistant ground.
Thus, the newly established Minamiyama Elementary School aims to become a "satoyama school" that is familiar to the local community, making the most of the 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 have it in a newly established school, and there are cases where it has been removed from existing schools. Kinjiro Ninomiya achieved management reconstruction for over 600 villages as a result of his rural management consulting across various regions in Tohoku. However, unfortunately, his great achievements have recently been forgotten, and the significance of the statue seems to be misunderstood.
Therefore, this time we welcomed Professor Mariko Nakagaki, the seventh descendant of Kinjiro, who obtained a doctorate in education from Kyoto University, as a lecturer. Although the time was limited, she gave a fulfilling lecture titled "Rich Human Development: Learning from the Life of Kinjiro Ninomiya," and I believe that more people were able to understand the philosophy of "Hōtoku."
The philosophy of "Hōtoku," which is necessary to practice the "waterwheel philosophy" of half following (knowing, observing well, accepting) and half resisting (countermeasures, ingenuity), is based on the idea that "rich human development is the beginning of everything," and I am convinced that this connects to the "satoyama education" that our school aims for.
On that day, I would like to express my gratitude once again to Professor Nakagaki for taking the valuable time to give her lecture, as well as to the many citizens who came to the venue that day.