, also known as Ninomiya Kinjirō (二宮 金次郎), was a Japanese agriculturalist. He lost his parents when he was a boy, but through hard work and diligence, he rebuilt his fallen family at the age of 20. Later, he rebuilt approximately 600 villages and became a shogunate retainer. His ideas and actions were inherited as the Hōtokusha Movement. Life Ninomiya Sontoku was born to a poor peasant family with a name of Kinjiro in Kayama (栢山), Ashigarakami-gun, Sagami province. His father died when he was 14 and his mother died two years later. He was then placed in his uncle's household. While working on his uncle's land, Sontoku studied on his own. He later obtained abandoned land on his own and transformed it into agricultural land, eventually restoring his household on his own at the age of 20. He achieved considerable wealth as a landlord while in his 20s. He was then recruited to run a small feudal district which was facing considerable financial difficulty. He achieved this by reviving the local economy, particularly through agricultural development. The daimyō, hearing of his achievement, eventually recruited Sontoku to run Odawara Domain then Sagami Province. It is said that during his administration a famine struck Odawara. Sontoku proposed opening up the public granaries to feed the starving populace. He was opposed by his fellow bureaucrats who reminded him that permission had to be granted by the shōgun for commoners to have access to the rice stores. In that case, Sontoku replied, no one, including the bureaucrats, could eat the public rice before getting the shōgun's approval. They quickly changed their minds and decided that, since it was an emergency, the people should be fed immediately. He was eventually entrusted with one of the shogunate's estates, which was a great honor for someone of his low origin. His philosophy and methodology became a standard format in feudal land developmental and economic management. The name "Sontoku" was given to him for his accomplishments. After his death, the emperor awarded him with Juji'i (従四位), which was the Lower Fourth Honor under the ritsuryō rank system. Philosophy Though he did not leave written philosophical work, his ideas were later transcribed by his disciples: Tomita Takayoshi, Fukuzumi Masae and Saitō Takayuki. Ninomiya combined three strands of traditional teachings — Buddhism, Shintōism and Confucianism — and transformed them into practical ethical principles that matured out of his experiences.