Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi was born on June 6, 1871, in a small village in northwestern Japan. He was the first son of Chomatsu Watanabe; his mother’s name was Ine; his parents named him Chohichi. Makiguchi’s father abandoned him and his mother when he was very young. When he was three years old, he was left with the family of an uncle, Zendayu Makiguchi. His mother met with him secretly from time to time, eventually attempting murder-suicide by jumping into the Japan sea with Makiguchi in her arms. They were both rescued but he never saw his mother again.

In his mid-teens Makiguchi moved to Hokkaido and lived for a time with an uncle, Shiroji Watanabe. He took a job as an errand boy and studied to pass a government exam that would qualify him to take college entrance exams. His studiousness and dependability impressed the chief of police who invited him to accompany him to Sapporo.

Just before he graduated from Sapporo normal school in 1893 he changed his name to Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. He was accepted a position as a supervising teacher in the primary school attached to the normal school. He held the position for eight years.

In 1894 Makiguchi married Kuma. They had eight children, four boys and four girls. Tragedy struck repeatedly during the last twenty years of his life. Four of his children died between 1924 and 1932. In 1944 he was consigned to solitary confinement in Sugano Prison for refusing to cooperate in government required religious practices. During this incarceration his remaining son was killed in battle in World War II. Makiguchi died on November 18, 1944, at the age of seventy-three.