Kuniyoshi Obara

Born to a Samurai family on 8 April 1887 in the Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan, in a village called Kushi, Obara was the grandson of a famous educator.

There, he was influenced by prominent professors in the Kyoto School of philosophy, including Kitaro Nishida and Seiichi Hatano.

Kyôiku no Konpon Mondai to shite no Shûkyô ("Religion as the fundamental problem of education") was a retitling of his bachelor's thesis, Shûkyô ni yoru Kyôiku no Kyûsai ("The salvation of education through religion"), which he had completed the same year.

Following his graduation, Obara became the head of the Department of Educational Affairs of the elementary school at Hiroshima Higher Normal.

[1] In 1929, wanting a school that would fundamentally embody his personal education philosophies, Obara decided to create a new complex, Tamagawa Gakuen.

[1] He helped revive Japanese arts education, in significant part a response to his introduction of "school drama" to the elementary studies at Hiroshima Normal.

He invited a wide variety of international educators to visit his Tamagawa Gakuen campuses.

Kuniyoshi Obara believed that there are six areas of human culture: academics, morality, art, religion, the body and livelihood.

The Japanese word ‘Zenjin’ means ‘whole man’ or ‘whole person.’ Thus his theory is often called ‘whole man education’ or ‘whole person education.’[4] Obara was internationally honored for his work, receiving among other recognition the Royal Order of Commander of the Dannebrog, Knight, bestowed during his 1975 visit to Denmark with his wife.

[1][5] A paper on Obara has been on the UNESCO site and presents a detailed account of the ideas and aspects he has talked about.