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［52 Ninomiya Sontoku］ The source：「REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF JAPAN」
〔Boyhood〕 Ninomiya Kinjirou, surnamed Sontoku (Admirer of Virtue), was born in the seventh year of Tenmei (1787). His father was a farmer of very small means in an obscure village in the province of Sagami, notable, however, among his neighbors for his charity and public spirit. At the age of 16, Sontoku, with his two little brothers, was orphaned, and the conference of his relatives decided upon the dissolution of his poor family, and he, the eldest, was placed under the custody of one of his paternal uncles. Here the lad's whole endeavor was to be as little burdensome to his uncle as possible. He lamented that he could not do to a man's part, and to make up what he in his youth could not accomplish in daytime, he would work till very late at midnight. Then came a thought to him that he would not grow up to be an illiterate man, a person with "open, seeing eyes, yet blind" to the wisdoms of the ancients. So he procured a copy of Confucius' Great Learing, and in the depth of night after the day's full work, he applied himself assiduously to his classical study. But soon his uncle found him at his study, sharply reprimanded him for the use of precious oil for work from which he (the uncle) could not derive any benefit, and could see no practical good to the youth himself. Sontoku considered his uncle's resentment reasonable, and gave up his study till he could have oil of his own to burn. So the nex spring, he broke up a little land that belonged to nobody, on the bank of a river, and there planted some rape-seed and gave all of his holidays to the raising of this crop of his own. At the end of one year, he had a large bagful of the seed, the product of his own hand, and received directly from Nature as a reward of his honest labor. He took the seed to a neighboring oil-factory, had it exchanged for a few gallons of the oil, and was glad beyond expression that he could now resume his study without drawing from his uncle's store. Triumphantly he returned to his night-lesson, not without some hope of words of applause from his uncle for patience and industry such as his. But no! the uncle said that the youth's time was also his, seeing that he supported him, and that he could not afford to let any of his engage in so unprofitable a work as book-reading. Sontoku again thinks his uncle is reasonable, follows his behest, and goes to mat-weaving and sandal-making after the day's heavy work upon the farm is done. Since then, his studies were prosecuted on his way to and from hills whereunto he was daily sent to fetch hay and fuel for his uncle's household. His holidays were his, and he was not one to throw them away for amusements. His experiment with the rape-seed taught him the value of earnest labor, and he wished to renew his experiment upon a larger scale. He found in his village a spot changed into a marsh-pond by a recent flood, wherein was a capital opportunity for him to employ his holidays for useful purposes. He drained the pond, levelled its bottom, and prepared it for a snug little ricefield. There he planted some seedlings that he picked out of the surplus usually cast away by farmers, and bestowed upon them a summer's watchful care. The autumn brought him a bagful (2 bushels) of golden grain, and we can imagine the joy of our orphan-boy who for the first time in his life had his life-stuff provided him as a reward for his humble effort. The crop he gathered that autumn was the fund upon which he started his eventful career. True, independent man was he! He learnt that Nature is faithful to honest sons of toil, and all his subsequent reforms were based upon this simple principle that Nature rewardeth abundantly them that obey her laws. A few years afterward he left his uncle's house, and with what little grain he gathered wuth his own hand out of his the mere refuse lands he discovered and improved in his village, he returned to his paternal cottage now deserted for many years. With his patience, faith, and industry, nothing stood in his way on his attempt to convert chaos and desolation into order and productivity. Declivities of hills, waste spots on river-banks, roadsides, marshes, all added wealth and substance to him, and before many years he was a man of no little means, respected by his entire neighborhood for his exemplary economy and industry. He conquered all things for himself, and he was ready to help others to make similar conquests for themselves. |
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［52 二宮尊徳］ 出典：講談社インターナショナル（株）発行内村鑑三著「対訳・代表的日本人」
〔少年時代〕 尊徳（徳を尊ぶ人）の名で親しまれている二宮金次郎は、天明７（1787）年に生まれ た。父は相模の国の名もない村の、ごく貧しい農民だったが、隣人たちには仁愛と公共 心があることで有名だった。16歳のとき、尊徳は二人の弟とともに孤児となった。親族 が相談して、哀れな家族は引き離されることになり、長男の尊徳は父方の伯父のもとへ 引き取られた。伯父の家で、若者はできるだけ伯父の厄介にならないように懸命に働い た。一人前の大人の仕事ができないのを嘆き、少年であるために日中にできなかった分 は、夜中まで働いて埋め合わせた。そのうちに、字の読めない人間になりたくないとい う思いを抱いた。古人の学問に対して「目明に見えず」ではいたくないと思ったのであ る。そこで、孔子の「大学」を手に入れ、一日の仕事をすべて終えてから、深夜にこの 古典をこつこつと勉強した。しかし、やがてそれが伯父に見つかり、伯父の得にはなら ず、まだ若い尊徳にも実際に役立つとは思えないことに、貴重な油を使ったと厳しく叱 られた。尊徳は、伯父の怒りをもっともだと思い、自分の力で灯油を手に入れられるよ うになるまでは、勉強をあきらめた。そして翌春、持ち主のいない川べりのわずかな土 地を開墾してアブラナの種を蒔き、休みの日のすべてを使って、自分自身の作物を育て た。そして、年の終わりには大きな袋一杯の菜種を収穫した。自分の労力で手にした成 果であり、自然から直接授かった、誠実な労働の報酬である。尊徳はこの菜種を近くの 油屋へ持って行き、数升の油と交換した。これで伯父の油を使わずに勉強を再開できる と思うと、言うようもなくうれしかった。尊徳は誇らしい気持ちで夜の勉強を再開し、 自分のこのような忍耐と勤勉に対して、伯父からほめ言葉があるのではないかと少しは 期待もしていた。しかし、そうはならなかった。伯父は、養っているのだから、この若 者の時間は自分のものであり、読書のような無駄なことをさせる余裕はないと言った。 尊徳は、今度も伯父の言うことは当然だと思い、言いつけに従って、一日の厳しい農作 業が終わった後、むしろ織りやわらじ作りに励んだ。以後は、伯父の家で使う干し草や 薪を、毎日山へ取りに行く往復に勉強をした。 休みの日は自分のものだったが、遊んで無駄にすることはなかった。尊徳は菜種を収 穫した経験から、まじめに働くことの価値を学び、この経験をもっと大規模に試してみ たいと思った。村に、最近の洪水で沼地になったところがあるのを知り、休みを有益に 使う絶好の機会だと思った。沼から水を汲み出し、底をならし、きちんとした小さな田 になるようにした。その田に、いつも農民が捨てている余った苗を拾ってきて植え、夏 中怠らずに世話をした。秋には１俵近くも見事な米がとれた。地味な努力が報いられて 、生まれてはじめて生活の糧を得た孤児の喜びようが目に浮かぶ。その秋に収穫した米 は、波乱に富んだ人生を始めるための資金となった。彼はまさしく、独立した人間だっ たのだ。尊徳は、自然が正直にこつこつと働く者の味方であることを学び、後のすべて の改革は、自然はその法に従う者には豊かに報いるという明解な原理に基づいて進めら れた。 数年後、尊徳は伯父の家を出て、村の見捨てられていた土地を見つけては改良して作 りためた、わずかばかりの米を抱えて、何年も住む人のなかった親の家に戻った。彼の 忍耐と信念と勤勉をもってすれば、混沌と荒廃を秩序と多産に変えようとする試みを妨 げるものはなかった。山の斜面や川岸の空き地、道端、沼地をことごとく生かして使う 尊徳に、富と資産が増えていき、何年もたたないうちにかなりの資産家になって、近所 の誰からも倹約と勤勉の模範として尊敬されるようになった。なにごとも自力で克服し た尊徳は、同じように自力で克服しようとする人たちの力になろうと思っていた。  |
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