He was born in Takahashi, Bitchū Province (Takahashi, Okayama), the second son of the Yoshida family, who ran a barbershop. Soon after he was adopted by Tomeoka Kinsuke, a rice dealer nearby. Raised as a townsman's child, he is said to have been pained by discrimination based on status, one reason he later chose to help people in weak positions.
In his teens, while living in the home of a Christian doctor and helping prepare medicines, he was influenced by the doctor's character. He was baptized at the church in Takahashi and became a Christian. This faith became the foundation supporting his work throughout the rest of his life.
Leaving home to meet Niijima Jō, he visited Doshisha in Kyoto but could not see him; his adoptive father brought him back and confined him in the house. Even so, with the help of the family's adopted daughter Natsuko he left again and stayed with Yokoi Tokio, pastor of the church in Imabari. Natsuko later became his wife. Around this time he also met Tokutomi Roka.
He entered the theology course of the Doshisha English School and was taught by Niijima Jō. He was strongly influenced by Niijima's belief in valuing each individual person. After graduating he became pastor of a church in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture, and spent about three years spreading Christianity.
He became a kyōkaishi, a prison chaplain teaching inmates, at the Sorachi prison in Hokkaido. Facing people who had committed crimes, he learned that many had gone astray because of poverty or family troubles in childhood. He came to believe that preventing crime meant helping children set themselves right while still young.
He went to America and, training at reformatories in Massachusetts and New York, learned methods for rehabilitating young offenders. Touring institutions in various places, he concluded that a warm, home-like environment and education through work were essential. He returned home about three years later.
While serving as a prison chaplain at Sugamo in Tokyo, he bought land and opened the Katei Gakkō, a private reformatory. The children lived in small houses with married staff couples, like families. The idea of raising them anew through affection and daily life rather than punishment was very new for its time.
After losing his wife Natsuko, he was ordered by the Home Ministry to study charitable work in Europe and America and went abroad again. He sought to apply what he saw of other countries' welfare efforts to Japan's reform and social work. He also kept publishing a magazine to spread the importance of social work.
Under the motto ryūkan tanren, training body and mind through sweat, he received state land at Engaru in Hokkaido and opened a branch of the Katei Gakkō. Children were raised amid nature while working at farming and other tasks. It was an open school not enclosed by walls, and he also worked with the settlers to build up the local community.
In recognition of this work he received the Medal with Blue Ribbon. Traveling between the main school in Tokyo and the Hokkaido branch, he kept guiding both. With Ishii Jūji, Yamamuro Gunpei and others, he is counted among the Four Saints of Okayama, social welfare pioneers linked to Okayama.
He collapsed with illness during a celebration of fifty years of faith at the Katei Gakkō, and later became honorary principal and withdrew from active work. He died soon after in Tokyo. The Katei Gakkō still supports children in Tokyo and Hokkaido today, and the place name Tomeoka survives in the town of Engaru, Hokkaido.
Ozaki YukioKatō TakaakiKatō TomosaburōMakino TomitarōNagaoka HantarōMinakata KumagusuNishida KitarōHonda Kōtarō
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.