the peace stone

The St John's College 'Peace Stone' was unveiled and dedicated on 15 October 1989. It was a gift from the Japanese organization Shuyodan Hoseikai and is the the only Peace Stone in Australia.

Each Peace Stone is a piece of natural rock about two metres high, engraved with Kanji characters. The Stone at St John's is inscribed with a poem of eight characters, which translates, "Four Seas are Brothers and Sisters. All nations are in peace".

The poem was written by a famous calligrapher and Buddhist monk, Shunkai Bundo.

The Stone's erection owes much to the friendship between Fr Paul Glynn SM, an Australian Marist Priest who has been involved for twenty years in reconciliation with Japan, and the families of John McVittie, one of the first Australian scholars invited to Japan after World War II, and of Ryutaro Shidehara, his pupil and a member of Shuyodan Hoseikai.

Seitaro Idei

Seitaro Idei, the founder of Shuyodan Hosekai, was born in 1899 in Sano, about 150 km north of Tokyo. He was strongly influenced by his parents and grew up to be a pacifist.  He became convinced that war is the worst of human evils.  In 1928 he took to the streets of Tokyo, campaigning for the withdrawal of the military from politics, and against intervention in Manchuria and Taiwan.  He was imprisoned four times during World War II.

Shuyodan Hoseikai

His experience of imprisonment led to a conviction that people are born fundamentally good and can enjoy a deep peace of heart if only their ideas, words and deeds manifest Makoto or sincerity. His ideals inspired him in 1941 to found Shuyodan Hoseikai, the Society for Promoting Devoted Service and Sincerity.

The members of the Society strive to live out the moral principles inherent in their belief. They work and pray for peace. Each day at noon prayers for peace are offered at their headquarters in Tokyo.

The Peace Stones

Seitaro believed that peace must be promoted peacefully. At the end of the War, his lifelong zeal for peace came to be expressed in the form of Peace Stones.

A Peace Stone does not shout out but peacefully reminds passers by of the value of peace and the need to work to preserve it.

The first Peace Stone in Japan was erected on an island off the coast of Hiroshima in 1959;  the fifteenth, at Nagasaki in 1983. There are now 25 Peace Stones in 17 Japanese cities.

The Design and Erection of the Peace Stone at St John's College

The stone dedicated at St John's is the fourth such monument erected outside Japan. It is the only example in Australia. Other stones are located in Sao Paolo, Berlin and San Francisco.

The stone is granite, about 305 million years old. It was given by Mr and Mrs Bernard Lenehan, on whose property at Georges Plains near Bathurst it was found, and whose family was involved in the foundation of St John's in 1858. Mr and Mrs Laurie Beaumont of Killara made possible its transportation to the College.

The Stone and garden were designed by Urbanscope under its director, the Japanese architect Mr Ikeda. The Stone was trimmed and shaped and the Kanji sandblasted into the Stone by the stonemasons D.B. Acton.

The sandstone work surrounding the Peace Stone was completed by Bundanoon Quarries.

The College and Shuyodan Hoseidai hope that your visit to the Peace Stone will draw your heart and mind to thoughts of peace.