S11 #05 - What would a free-religious company look like? - A thought for the day

The full text of this podcast with all the links mentioned in it can be found in the transcript of this edition, or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2025/10/what-would-free-religious-company-look.html

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Opening Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass) 

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Transcript

A short “thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation 

—o0o— 

Last week I explored with you some implications of a saying by the great twentieth-century Japanese free-religious exemplar Nishida Tenkō-san: “What is called ‘profit’ disappears without a trace. Only the labour done with the sweat of one’s brow is a noble profit that does not perish.” Its central implication, at least as I expressed it last week, is that true profit lies not in the growth of capital, financial investment, or production, but in the growth of human wisdom — wisdom that reveals the value of living as simply, and as spiritually and intellectually creatively, as possible; that is to say, a life of compassionate service to others.

While working over the summer on new translations of Tenkō-san’s sayings, I began to wonder how his ideas might play out in the secular world beyond the Ittōen community. What might a business based on his free-religious principles look like? Trying to answer this question led me, quite unexpectedly, to Suzuki Seiichi [鈴木 清一] (1911–1980). Born in Hekinan City, Aichi Prefecture, Suzuki fell ill with pleurisy early in his working life. The compassionate care he received from his foster mother moved him to join Konkokyō— a kind of free-religious Shintō — and this early experience shaped his ethical outlook.

In 1938, Suzuki entered Ittōen, the spiritual community founded by Nishida Tenkō-san, where he adopted a life of prayer, repentance, and takuhatsu (the practice of humble service and offering, lit. “alms-begging”) as training. This decisive period laid the foundation for what he later called “prayer-based management” [祈りの経営] and his lifelong aim to unite “the Way and economy” [道と経済の合一].

After leaving Ittōen, Suzuki moved into business leadership. In 1958 he founded Kentoku Shinseisha Co., Ltd. (later Kentoku Co., Ltd.) [ケントク], a cleaning and building-maintenance company closely tied to his Ittōen-inspired, service-oriented ideals. It is upon this company that I’ll concentrate today, but before doing so it’s worth noting that in 1963 Suzuki also founded Duskin, through which he built a nationwide franchise for rental cleaning tools and related services. Under his leadership, Duskin developed an innovative distribution network and, later, diversified — notably with Mister Donut from 1971 — becoming one of Japan’s earliest composite franchise groups.

Curious, I looked up the websites of these companies, and the one for Kentoku particularly stopped me in my tracks:

https://www.kentoku.co.jp/about/foundation.html 

Why? Well, because on the company’s home page you immediately encounter an unexpected series of statements and prayers that, even months later, still surprise and delight me.

So, at the top of the page, in very small type, appears the company’s name, Kentoku, followed by the most minimal description possible of what it does:

General Building Service Business
Food business and Duskin related business
Cleaning and equipment management

But instead of continuing to describe the company’s services in more detail, as you would expect on any normal business website, the page then continues with this policy statement:

“Let us sow seeds of joy.”
The management philosophy [経営理念] of Kentoku [ケントク] will remain unchanged into the future.

Next comes a short text about “Prayer-based Management — The Kentoku Management Philosophy”. This reads:

Each day — and above all, today —
is an opportunity for your life (and mine)
to be born anew.

When faced with gain or loss, choose the path of loss.
In relation to others, sow the seeds of joy.
May both you and I grow rich in both body and spirit,
and together help make a world filled with meaning and purpose.

In gassho (with palms joined in reverence)

Then the page turns to the practical goals of living out this management philosophy:

Deepen your life of prayer.
Become someone who can truly give thanks.
Support the growth of others.
Strive continually for excellence.
Sow the seeds of joy.
Grow and prosper in harmony with right profit.

Then there follows “The Prayer of the Kentoku Family”

Money is fleeting,
Status cannot be relied upon.
Unafraid of what others may think,
with a single-hearted devotion
we walk the path of repentance,
offering ourselves wholly,
and carry out takuhatsu in gratitude for blessings received.

In gassho (with palms joined in reverence)

This is followed by “The Vow of Kentoku”:

May we nurture the virtues of humility, wisdom, and strength.
May the foremost purpose of our work be the shaping of true humanity.

May our labour be a source of joy,
and may profit arise from dealings filled with gladness.

Through honest trade, may we grow in friendship with others,
and through our economic life, may we serve the cause of world peace.

In gassho (with palms joined in reverence)

The page then has a short text called “At Kentoku”:

At Kentoku, those who work together are warmly called Hataraki-san — our working companions.
It is they who bring our guiding philosophy to life. Every member of Kentoku, through their work, puts into practice the sowing of the seeds of joy.

It’s only then that we find a text that actually addresses the work the company does. This section is called “The Kentoku Story”:

Starting from zero, working earnestly,
once we have gained real ability,
first we ourselves are saved, and our families are saved,
and in gratitude for that, we then help others too,
so that we may create a joyful workplace
where there is neither exploitation
nor exploitation of others.

Our work is cleaning buildings —
theatres, schools, all kinds of buildings,
the washing and polishing of Japanese houses —
that indeed is “the work of making the world beautiful.”

Beyond that, whatever we are asked to do,
if it is something that will please people,
we will gladly do it.

We feel the victory of the spirit,
we feel purpose in living
and purpose in working,
for we are the Hataraki-san
of Kentoku Co., Ltd., Management through Prayer.

Then the page tells you something about Suzuki Seiichi’s life, and the home page concludes with “The Four Aspirations Contained in Prayer-based Management”:

Management does not belong only to the manager; all Hataraki-san participate in management. Each and everyone transforms the self, wishing day by day to “be newly reborn”.

When interests conflict, from one’s own standpoint, one chooses “to walk the path of loss”. This is not the same as the worldly saying “lose to gain”. Within companies, people easily lose sight of humanity when single-mindedly pursuing economic rationality. Kentoku wishes to value humanity above all.

Toward others, “sow seeds of joy”. It leads to doing, willingly, those things that bring joy to others. Each of Kentoku’s businesses is a practical embodiment of this spirit.

In “becoming rich both materially and spiritually”, there lives the spirit of Nishida Tenkō-san of Ittoen: “It is a shame when things do not accumulate; but it is equally shameful to gather them and make them one’s own.” [物集まらざるは恥なり。集めた物を己の物とするも恥なり。] [see Tenkō-san’s saying 47]. “Richness of heart” [心の豊かさ] lies not in gathering, but in offering love and service to others [愛と奉仕を他に捧げること]. By devoting oneself to others, we wish together to make this a “world that has purpose in living.”

Now, are these aspirations still fully played out in the daily life of this company? I don’t know for sure, but I hope so, and the research I’ve so far managed to do suggests it does. But in all cases, Kentoku seems to be a company where its true profit is still being measured, not by its financial profit, but instead, by its success in helping its customers and employees live better, more compassionate, joyful and beautiful lives. It strikes me that there’s something to learn from Kentoku.

https://www.kentoku.co.jp/about/foundation.html