Sontoku Ninomiya was an administrator and specialist in agricultural affairs who worked vigorously to restore prosperity to the farming villages in the late Edo period.
Background
Sontoku Ninomiya was born on 4 September 1787. His common name was Kinjiro. He was the son of a middle-class farm family of the village of Kayama, Ashigara District, in the province of Sagami. His family’s livelihood was wiped out by the floods of the Sakawa River, and both his parents died when he was still a child.
Career
From his youth he was noted for his devotion to learning and diligence, and by around the age of twenty- four he had succeeded in reestablishing the Ninomiya family.
Many farmers of the time, because of the financial pressures upon them, had abandoned their farms and villages. In restoring health to the farming communities, Ninomiya insisted that the yearly levies and taxes imposed upon the farmers by the lord of the fief be kept at a fixed level and employed any surplus funds that became available to improve agricultural facilities or to invest in activities profitable to the farm community. At the same time, he worked to impress upon the farmers the importance of simple, frugal ways of living and of diligence.
As his fame spread, he attracted the attention of the Tokugawa shogunate, which in 1842 appointed him to take charge of public works projects. In 1853 he undertook to restore prosperity to the farming villages in the domain of the Tosho-gu in Nikko, the shrine dedicated to the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, but he fell ill and died before completing the task.
Achievements
Works
Other Work
His writings include the Hotokuki and the Sansai hotoku kimmo roku.