Mansfield Sister Cities friend Kosuke Maki of Japan dies at 89
The Mansfield Sister Cities cultural exchange program has lost a good friend.
Kosuke Maki, 89, brought a delegation of students to the United States and to Mansfield since about 2000. And Mansfielders traveled to Japan, too.
Maki died Feb. 19 in Tamura, Japan, after an illness.
He was the principal at the Wakakusa Yochien, the pastor of the Funehiki Evangelical Church, and head of the Wakakusa English School in Japan.
More:Japanese students visit Mansfield, first time in USA for many
He began conversations with Mansfield resident Ann Brown in 1999 about the possibility of beginning an official sister city relationship. Maki brought students to Mansfield St. Peter's and Mansfield Christian School, among other schools, where the youths toured the sites and attractions in Mansfield while staying in local Sister Cities members' homes.
Born March 7, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan, he leaves behind his wife, Tomoko, and many beloved friends.
Kosuke Maki inspired many
He inspired many and had an incredible legacy, according to information provided by Rebekah Stefaniuk of Mansfield. He lost his father, a prominent judge, when he was only 2. Taught by his mother, he also chose to become a Christian. His mother, Takiko Tatetsuji, started a church and a kindergarten in a rural town in Fukushima Prefecture, Funehiki, in 1956. She wanted to show the love of Christ through offering what she believed to be the most helpful means: education as well as the gospel of Jesus.
Maki attended high school in Minnesota after the war as an exchange student. He then returned to Japan. In 1961, Maki met Ray Nethery of Mansfield while working together with World Vision.
They worked for a rigorous four months, holding gospel meetings with an orchestra and singing as well as gospel presentations. They filled Meiji stadium with 15,000 people nightly. Nethery is quite tall in stature, while Maki is not, and they were nicknamed “David and Goliath,” Stefniuk said. After this, Maki became the first full time director for Campus Crusade for Christ in Japan.
Two years later, Maki’s mother became ill and he chose to leave his Tokyo life and move to Funehiki, Japan, to take over his mother’s work. Shortly after his mother died, Maki married Tomoko. Maki became the principal of the kindergarten as well as the pastor for Funehiki Evangelical Church. Nethery had also since become a pastor of Grace Haven in Mansfield and the two remained friends.
Maki then opened an additional school which offered English and math classes for students after their school day. In the late 1970s, he flew Nethery and his wife Eunice to Japan for a visit. At the end of the visit, Maki proposed an idea: would Nethery help him find an American Christian who would come and live in Japan for a year and teach conversational English? Maki’s desire was not just for educating academically, but also offering a broader thinking. Nethery agreed and in 1982, Karin Kurtz was the first Wakakusa teacher.
Meanwhile, Maki’s kindergarten was growing. He needed a new building. His educational philosophy was that peoples’ view and feeling on education began when they first entered “school.” So his kindergarten was a nurturing place where children felt loved and encouraged to blossom. His mother had said, “Children learn to be loved and to love. This love is giving from the heart.”
Had a vision of how school should be built
He wanted this reflected also in how his kindergarten building was built. The building is all wood, with windows everywhere and each classroom named after a flower. His educational ideas were so respected that he even traveled with the United Nations as an educational ambassador, helping impoverished countries to build their educational systems.
He and Nethery continued to share their cultures as each year a group of American students would come to Japan and the next year a group of Japanese students would come to Mansfield. He also became a part of Rotary International, and served as district governor for years.
His English school grew to need four native English-speaking teachers. In 1998, the Funehki Board of Education approached Maki about his teachers. They had been hiring native English speaking teachers to assist Japanese teachers in the junior high schools through a different company.
"Your English teachers are different than ours. Why?" the mayor asked Mr. Maki.
He responded, “My teachers are Christians.” The major replied, “Then please recruit your teachers for us.” In 1999, two new assistant English teachers were hired to work in the public junior high schools.
Always dreaming, Maki wanted to think of more ways to help the people of Funehiki. In 1999, he began conversations with Ann Brown about the possibility of beginning an official sister city relationship. Funehiki was growing, and was changing from a town to a city. With that growth came a new name: Tamura City. In 2001, a delegation of people from Mansfield, Ohio, flew to Japan for an official tour and signing of their sister city partnership.
From there, every October students and officials from Tamura visited the United States and stayed in Mansfield for a few days. These trips were life-changing for the students as well as for the people of Mansfield who were involved.
Maki’s teaching staff has grown to 11. Eight of them teach in public junior high schools, and three of them teach in his after-school program. They also teach in elementary schools and in Maki’s kindergarten. His kindergarten has grown to offer daycare for infants and children not yet kindergarten age. He has more than 500 students.
The heart and vision of Mr. Kosuke Maki will be greatly missed, Stefaniuk said. "I hope those of us inspired by him will do well to take his example of loving others, being joyful and offering hope. In a Rotary speech given in 2009 Mr. Maki said, 'When you reach a certain age, there are people who say, I don’t have anything in particular to learn. I feel sad when I hear such a thing. There are always things to learn.'”
Would like to continue cultural exchanges
Brown said she would like to continue the cultural exchange with students if Japan is willing.
"Ray Nethery did not have to convince me that becoming a Sister City with Japan would be profound," she said. "Then we met Mr. Maki and our lives were transformed forever. A small man with a wonderful smile, loved to laugh and have fun, and so respectful and polite."
Brown said when Maki's students visited the local schools, including St. Peter's Schools, she was astounded at how well behaved and polite the local schoolchildren were around the Japanese students.
"The social interactions were amazing. All the children were learning about each other and their respective cultures ― in person. So many people were touched, tears were shed when trips ended. Memories remain forever. Mr. Maki loved people. He brought out the best in others because he cared so much, especially about the children," said Brown, who is a member of Mansfield St. Peter's Church where she is known for organizing and baking the Christmas and Easter bake sales.
"My family misses him. Now we have just memories of a great man who achieved so much in his life yet possessed the greatest humility. His goodness has impacted our hearts and hence his legacy will live on. We hope to continue our Sister City visits because I know he would want that," Brown added.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
419-521-7223
Twitter: @LWhitmir
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Kosuke Masi brought a delegation of students to Mansfield yearly.
