Most Japanese learn about Sontoku Ninomia in school. His statues are common in front of elementary schools in Japan and show him carrying firewood but reading a book.
From business through health, Japanese concepts often enlighten and set the course for nations and cultures across the world. Japan’s success in post-war reconstruction has led many to see pathways for their own potential success in the Japanese. Therefore these concepts come attached with much value.
Among the more recent ones is Ikigai – based on a book that spotlighted long living Okinawans. But Mayuko Kataoka, former journalist and presently in charge of international publishing at IRH Press Co. (Happy Science Group) of Japan, disputes that ikigai is central to Japanese life. “Kinben which stands for hard work and diligence is more basic to the Japanese. The kinben spirit helped Japan become industrialized,” she says.
Symbolizing the kinben spirit is Sontoku Ninomia, a peasant leader of early 19th-century Japan. Most Japanese learn about Sontoku Ninomia in school. His statues are common in front of elementary schools in Japan and show him carrying firewood but reading a book.
Happy Science Group has a stall at the ongoing Chennai Book Fair where Sontoku Ninomiya: The Spirit of Japanese Prosperity, a manga comic, is a key feature. The book drives several messages: thrift, family values, community spirit, resilience and so on.
Sontoku grew up poor. His father was too generous with giving away his wealth and went bankrupt when a flood destroyed his crop.
Poverty forced the Sontoku family to separate. He was raised by a mean uncle who refused to buy oil that he needed to light a lamp for studying at night. Sontoku grew rapeseed, exchanged it with oil at the shop, and studied.
Mean relatives, mean and indolent villagers, mean co-workers and mean climate – Sontoku’s life was about overcoming adversity but standing tall by not considering anyone his enemy. Acquiring small things eventually makes him accomplish big tasks. Bigger responsibilities come to him at various points in his life.
With responsibilities come challenges and adversities, however. Epiphanic moments in this journey of success include Sontoku asking himself if his lack of virtues made people turn away from him and if he wasn’t running away from failure to dodge his responsibilities.
Mayu says most Japanese grow up with Sontoku as a reference point. “As a child, I couldn’t fully understand Sontoku since I didn’t experience the kind of adversities he did,” she says.
Mayu was 18 years old when she had a severe skin disease. She was ill for nearly a year. “When I went out, people would stare at me. Blood used to come out from my skin,” she says, adding that’s when Sontoku’s life lessons resonated with her. The illness abated and Mayu made it to the university in Osaka where she learned Hindi.
Adversity was part of local folklore for Mayu, however. Her origins are in Hiroshima.
Mayu recalls how all the banks there were destroyed along with all the records by the atom bomb. But residents came together and truthfully recounted how much they had saved and deposited and how much they owed. In the end, all the accounts tallied. There was no dispute, she says.
Sontoku was always mindful of others around him and shared generously. As a child, since he couldn’t do farmwork as part of flood remediation, he chose to make sandals so those working in the fields could wear them. Mayu says the Sontoku way is Japanese capitalism that is not founded on individual avarice and a get-rich-quick approach.
Sontoku is part of growing up in Japan. While Mayu bemoans falling values and individualism taking over in today’s Japan, she feels the kinben spirit is still there.
Most visitors observe how frugal the Japanese are. At work, the Japanese often make it a point to write on both sides of paper before trashing it. At Fukashima after the nuclear accident, they lined up patiently to get supplies – never trying to get ahead or jump the queue.
Contemporary role models
It may well pay for India to look for Sontoku-type stories for elementary school textbooks. The heroes we celebrate in our textbooks are often kings and warriors. They fought battles – against the British and other oppressive rulers. Shivaji is standard in Maharashtra, for instance.
There is even mythmaking in our textbooks. Not too long ago, children in Tamil Nadu learned in school that the ancient Tamil woman could drive away a marauding tiger with a winnow.
While warrior kings and freedom fighters are inevitable in India, we could also flesh out more recent heroes who brought prosperity to themselves and others. We are often ignorant of thrifty business communities until much later in life.
The story of J. N. Tata’s steel plant in Jamshedpur is fascinating for its ingenuity such as in how the capital was raised. The benign aspects of the town are worth recounting as an example of contemporary India.
Published – January 04, 2025 11:52 pm IST
