小田原が生んだ偉人
二宮 尊徳 翁（1787-1856）
江戸時代後期、足柄平野の栢山村（小田原市）の比較的裕福な農家の長男として誕生。幼少期に自然災害によって酒匂川の氾濫が度重なり、田畑や家を失い、父母も心身疲労で相次いで死去、一家離散に。
金次郎は伯父方に預けられるも、逆境にもめげず卓越した才能を発揮。作業の合間に、稲の捨て苗や菜種を空き地に植えて収穫、夜も独学で勉強を重ねるなどして、24歳にして一家再興を成し遂げる。
その後、独自の手法を生かし近親者の家政再建を行ったほか、奉公に出た小田原藩の家老・服部家で「五常講」という金融互助制度(のちの信用組合の先駆け)をはじめ、服部家の財政を立て直します。
やがて、そのすぐれた発想と実践力が小田原藩主・大久保忠真から見込まれ登用され、財政難に苦しむ藩主の身内である旗本の野州（栃木県）桜町領の財政再建を託され北関東へ赴任。その後北関東を中心にその人生を世の為人の為に捧げ、生涯600にも及ぶ農村復興財政再建を成し遂げた偉大なる人物。
Sontoku Ninomiya
1787-1856
Ninomiya Sontoku, the deity of Houtoku Ninomiya Shrine, was born in the late Edo period in the village of Kayayama on the Ashigara Plain in Odawara City.
Born in the late Edo period as the eldest son of a relatively wealthy farmer in Kayayama Village (Odawara City) in the Ashigara Plain. During his childhood, natural disasters caused the Sako River to repeatedly flood, resulting in the loss of fields and homes, and the successive deaths of his parents from mental and physical exhaustion, leading to the separation of the family.
Kinjiro was left in the care of his uncle, but he was undeterred by adversity and demonstrated his outstanding talent. Between jobs, he planted abandoned rice seedlings and rapeseed in vacant lots to be harvested, and studied by himself at night.
Later, in addition to using his own unique methods to rebuild the family affairs of his close relatives, he started a financial mutual aid system called "Gojoko" (a precursor of the later credit union) in the Hattori family, a retainer of the Odawara clan, where he was an apprentice, and restored the finances of the Hattori family.
Later, due to his outstanding ideas and practical skills, he was promoted by Tadamasa Okubo, the feudal lord of the Odawara domain, and sent to the northern Kanto region to help rebuild the finances of the Sakura-machi domain in Noshu (Tochigi Prefecture), a flagship of the feudal lord's family that was suffering from financial difficulties. He was entrusted with the task of rebuilding the finances of the Sakuramachi fiefdom in Noshu (Tochigi Prefecture), a feudal lord's flagship that was suffering from financial difficulties.
