Juji Ishii

Japanese: 石井十次 - いしい・じゅうじ

Year of death: January 30, 1914
Year of birth: 1865.5.5 (Keio 1.4.11)
A social worker of the Meiji period. Founder of the Okayama Orphanage. Born to a low-ranking samurai family in Kamiue Village, Koyu County, Hyuga Province (Takanabe Town, Miyazaki Prefecture). His father, Mankichi, served on Saigo's side during the Seinan War. As a boy, he grew up in an environment that revered Saigo Takamori. He studied at Kogakusha and briefly worked as a police officer. Around 1882, he was influenced by the doctor Hagiwara Hyakuhei to become Christian, and entered Okayama Prefectural Class A Medical School with the goal of becoming a savior of the world. Two years later, he was baptized by Kanamori Michirin at the Japanese Union Okayama Christian Church. Inspired by the "Statement of Purpose for the Establishment of Doshisha University," he established the "Babahara Education Society" in his hometown to educate poor children. From this time on, he spent a period of anguish suffering from a "brain disease" as he tried to balance his desire to become a missionary and to become a doctor and live up to the expectations of his hometown. In 1845, while he was a substitute doctor in Okayama, he was entrusted with a pilgrim's child and rented a temple to begin educating the orphan. In 1848, it became the Okayama Orphanage. In 1849, he took in orphans from the Nobi earthquake. He paid close attention to the character development of the children, and in 1857, he introduced a family-style education system. He also attempted to run the orphanage on a self-sufficient and self-managed basis. In 1852, he moved the children to his hometown of Hyuga Chausuhara and began developing it, attempting to build an ideal town. After that, in 1864, during the Great Tohoku Famine, he took in more than 1,000 abandoned children. In his later years, he turned his attention to protecting mothers and children among the urban lower classes, and in 1867, he opened the Sympathy House in Osaka with Ohara Magosaburo of Kurashiki Spinning and others. In 1857, he burned his medical books for the sake of the "following spirits" and dedicated himself to helping orphans. <References> Shibata Yoshimori, "The Life and Thoughts of Ishii Juji"

(Yasuhisa Shinozaki)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正3.1.30(1914)
生年：慶応1.4.11(1865.5.5)
明治期の社会事業家。岡山孤児院創設者。日向国児湯郡上江村(宮崎県高鍋町)の下級武士の家に生まれる。父万吉は西南戦争に西郷方で従軍。少年時代,西郷隆盛を尊崇する風土の中で育つ。攻玉社に学び,一時警官などをする。明治15(1882)年ごろ,医師萩原百平の感化でキリスト教に接し,済世救人たらんと岡山県甲種医学校に入学。2年後,日本組合岡山基督教会で金森通倫から受洗。『同志社大学設立趣意書』に触発され,郷里に「馬場原教育会」を設立して貧児教育を試みる。このころから伝道者たらんとする思いと医師になって郷里の期待に応えんとする思いの中で「脳病」に苦しむ煩悶期を過ごす。同20年岡山で代診中,巡礼者の子を預けられ,寺を借りて孤児教育を始める。同23年に岡山孤児院となった。翌24年には濃尾地震による震災孤児を収容。院児の人格形成に注意を払い,同22年から家族式教育を導入。また自給自営による孤児院経営を試みた。同27年からは院児を郷里の日向茶臼原に移して開拓に着手し,理想郷の建設を試みた。その後,同39年の東北大凶作では1000人以上の棄児を収容した。晩年には都市下層民の母子保護に関心を向け,同42年に倉敷紡績の大原孫三郎らと大阪に同情館を開設した。同22年「従霊神」のために医学書を焼却し,孤児救済に献身した矯激な志士仁人的人物。<参考文献>柴田善守『石井十次の生涯と思想』

(篠崎恭久)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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