Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (牧口 常三郎, 1870–1944) was Sōka Gakkai's first president. He 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 affil...
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Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (牧口 常三郎, 1870–1944) was Sōka Gakkai's first president. He 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...
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