Ippitsu-ryu

The Oriental Dragon in One Brush StrokeT

he figure in the center is a character, or"letter", representing an imaginary OrientalDragon, "Ryu", and it is also the picture of theanimal. This is one of KOBODAISHI's secrets toward off evil and bring luck. According to thecalligrapher, Dr. Toho Hiraoka, he always prayed
while writing this character for good fortune andprosperity for everyone who had the chance tomeet him. If you have a wish, please place a glassof water next to this dragon and either say it aloudor visualize it, and your wish will surely come true.

1 / f fluctuation theory, watermarked bricks
12Ippitsu-ryu

The Oriental Dragon in One Brush StrokeT

he figure in the center is a character, or"letter", representing an imaginary Oriental
Dragon, "Ryu", and it is also the picture of theanimal. This is one of KOBODAISHI's secrets toward off evil and bring luck. According to thecalligrapher, Dr. Toho Hiraoka, he always prayed
while writing this character for good fortune andprosperity for everyone who had the chance tomeet him. If you have a wish, please place a glassof water next to this dragon and either say it aloudor visualize it, and your wish will surely come true.

1 / f fluctuation theory, watermarked bricks
12IT Education
IT education in today's world has become a controversial
subject, but it's a reality that cannot be avoided. As long as IT
occupies pride ofplace in our day and age, it would be bound­lessly unnatural not to advocate IT in education. Our founder
spoke of wealth in education. Back when he put forth that
idea, there were those who scolded him, asserting that it wasshameful to associate wealth with education. However,
wealth is the greatest problem faced by the world today. Any
educational approach that doesn't promote wealth today
would be unnatural in the extreme. I believe that it is adults'
responsibility to teach children carefully about wealth.
Certainly, IT education has its advantages and disadvan­tages. In light of constant pressure to save time and reducelabor, IT systems play an essential role in society, and IT isessential for education, too, if the purpose of education is totrain people so that they can contribute to society. On theother head, ifwe look at IT from the perspective ofsharpen­ing students' thought processes and training them to think, IT
comes off as something that's completely unnecessary foreducation. At Seifu Gakuen, we're currently searching for theroot purpose ofIT and creating a method for teaching IT in amanner that's faithful to that root purpose. In short, our goal
is not to produce students who can just operate computers,
but rather to endow them with a solid understanding of theunderlying motivations and concepts before they specialize
in IT in college or through their jobs after they graduate. We
hope to inspire them to ask how computers are made, why
they're necessary, and why they're better than other tools forcertain tasks. That's how we envision IT education.
We're proud to welcome Aiichiro Inoue, lead developer ofthe K Computer, as an advisor for IT education at Seifu
Gakuen.

Message from Aiichiro Inoue,lead developer of the K Computer
I've been involved with developing the piece of hardwarethat serves as the brain of the computer, known as theCPU,
for about 30 years. I've always been an engineer, and I've
never been part of the field of education. However, I think
there are certain things I can see precisely because I've devel­ope�CPUs. Computers may be strange and mysterious
devices, but recently the field is undergoing increasingly
significant change, which you can see in developments suchas artificial intelligence and AlphaGo's ability to beat profes­sional Go players.
When it comes to the question ofwhether I anticipatedthis situation as an engineer, to be honest, it has left mesurprised, too. But young people have to deal with thereality ofthis field. They have to utilize its capabilities astools for furthering their own ends. How to harness thistechnology in the field ofeducation is a major question. In
an era when we mustask how people should
relate to computers, it is
my hope that I can makeuse ofmy own experi­ence. I look forward toworking together toeducate young people
who can make use of
these technologies andin that way, to help
build a better society.
Teacher Aiichiro Inoue

Active LearningPut simply, the final core focus, Active Learning, refers toan approach in which students learn autonomously by taking
the initiative in their own education and growing as they
discover what they themselves will study. In short, it is anapproach to studying that has traditionally been a weakness
ofJapanese learners.
Most high schools have been hesitant to introduce active
learning due to the difficulty ofits implementation. However,
the trend worldwide is clearly tilting toward active learning,and various countries are incorporating the approach into
their educational systems. As the first ste�in adopting it atour school, we will emphasize self-expression as a technique
for tapping the inherent ability ofeach student by fostering an
ability to express oneself and cultivating a rich sense ofindividuality while freeing the self from constraints on thoseabilities. In the past, these skills have been neglected inJapanese classrooms. Music, art, and technology are prone tobe overlooked because they are seen as unrelated to college
entrance examinations, but in fact they are extremely impor­tant as avenues of self-expression. Creatively recreating thesounds one has heard, the colors one has perceived, and themechanical objects one has seen occupies an extremely
important role in shaping the outp1;1t of the educationalsystem. As an example of one specific initiative at Seifu
Gakuen, we're planning a method to develop the abilities thatrepresent our school's output by introducing song into theeducational curriculum.
We've invited Professor Toru Yuba of the Faculty ofEducation at Mie University to lay the foundation for active
learning using song by introducing his Yuba method forcorrecting song.

Message from Professor Toru Yuba of
the Faculty of Education at Mie University
Unlike the passive approach of traditional educational
systems, active learning empowers students to proactivelylearn for themselves. We can only teach in one capacity, but
students must go beyond that in their studies, or they will not
be able to keep up with the times. I think our task in the future
as teachers will be to approach our job in a way that allows us
to learn alongside our students.
w皿e I was teaching at a university in the U.S., students
once asked me 19 questions during a 60-minute lecture. Allof them were clearly audible. That's because etiquettedemands that one be able to express oneself to others inwords. As Japan becomes increasingly globalized, such skills
will become extremely important. Even with active learning,
we'll still require conventional education. Students will beable to learn nothing without the proper foundation. The idea
is for students to learn
proactively, and forteachers to learn alongwith them. My goal isto help students in thelillportantareaofcommun1cation
byenhancing their voices
theirand 1mprovmg·pronunciation.
Professor Toro Yuba

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