Yoshie Doi

Baigan Sensei Scroll from the Edo Period Prioritize ethics and put profits on the back burner (owned by Hanbei Fu Honten)

Ishida Baigan Sensei

Birthplace of Baigan Sensei

   Ishida Baigan Sensei, who was active during the Genroku and Kyoho eras of the Edo period, and around the same time as Yoshimune’s Kyoho reforms, started his career at the age of 10. He picked chestnuts from the mountain and proudly showed them to his father, who asked him where you had picked them from, to which he replied, “Somewhere in the mountain over there.” His father told him that a foreign chestnut tree had grown onto their land and that it had fallen into our land, so you should go and return it. He was in the middle of lunch when he was sent to return the chestnuts. It has also been made into a manga for children.

　At that time, I was so frustrated that I cried and cried in response, but later in life I remembered how grateful I was that my father had the courage to scold me. This is where the roots of Sekimon Shingaku lie.

   He pursued the question, “How should people be?” When Baigan Sensei was 23 years old, he met Ryoun Oguri, and he learned about the fusion of business and morality. At the age of 45, he preached Sekimon Shingaku, and began offering education that was open to anyone, with women also allowed to attend for free. This became the root of lifelong learning in Japan. Here, we preach the education of the mind, the way of being a human being, and the tendency to believe that it is enough to be good for oneself, by striving for “honesty, thrift, and diligence,” and by the philosophy of “Prioritize ethics and put profits on the back” “It’s in the other person’s interest, it’s in our own interest,” we chanted it as if we were doing business as this.”

　Even today, there are long-established companies in Kyoto that adhere to Ishida Baigan’s philosophy as their company motto. Baigan Sensei’s descendant and current head of the company, Mr. Jiro Ishida, gave me various books and other materials to learn from. I visited the Ishida family in Kameoka many times and spoke with them. Even now, the Ishida family still has the filial lotus that bloomed during Baigan’s death, and their house is located in a field in the mountains. The grave is also there.

　2030 will be the 300th anniversary of the opening of Sekimon Shingaku. In the next six years, we will see the aspirations of this long-established company blossom and bear fruit.

The end of document

Translated by Masami Otani

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