He saw agriculture as the highest form of humanity because it was the cultivation of resources given by the Kami. Economics Ninomiya Sontoku emphasized the importance of compound interest which was not well understood among samurai and peasants. He calculated the maturity of each interest rate for 100 years to show its significance by using the Japanese abacus (soroban). He viewed agricultural village life as communal, where surpluses from one year were invested to develop further land or saved for worse years, and shared by members of the community. He was aware that developed land had a lower tax base than established agricultural land, and he was adept at financial management which he applied to his estate. He encouraged migrants from other estates and rewarded them if they successfully established an agricultural household. He started his own financial institutions called gojoukou (), which appear to be forerunners of credit unions. Each member of the village union could borrow interest-free funds for 100 days, while the entire membership shared the cost in case of default. The combination of land development, immigration, and communal finance all managed under the diligent use of abacuses was a success and became the standard methodology of economic development in feudal Japan. Popular culture It is not uncommon to see statues of Ninomiya in or in front of Japanese schools, especially elementary schools. Typically they show him as a boy reading a book while walking and carrying firewood on his back. These statues depict popular stories that said Ninomiya was reading and studying every moment he could. There is a reference to him in the novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa. The father often tells the story of Ninomiya Sontoku to his children, relating how "Up early to the mountains for wood before the rooster calls 'ko-ke-kok-ko!' He studies and works every day to feed his baby brother and his mother. That is how he becomes the great teacher, Ninomiya Sontaku of Odawara, Japan." War loot In October 1994, Rollins College, a small private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida, United States made international headlines when the government of Japan, per a request from Okinawa Prefecture, asked for the return of a statue that was taken as war loot. It was taken by Clinton C. Nichols, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and Rollins graduate, after the Battle of Okinawa. Nichols presented the statue of