"Labour and manufacture makes man"

Visiting galleries and museums is an indispensible part of my travel. It is one of the best ways to understand and appreciate the life of the people in the country. And while the coming of a typhoon means outdoor activities were impossible today, those visits were even more timely.
One museum I visited today was Tsuchi No Yakata (Museum of Soils and Tractors of the World). The museum is a memorial of Toyoji Sugano, who returned to Japan after the war to resume his old business, and the site of the museum was the very first factory he re-opened. It wasn't the most interesting museum in terms of exhibits (to me at least), as they were, exactly as the name of the place has suggested, just soils and tractors. But I was impressed by the work ethics and philosophy of the founder and his son. Toyoji Sugano's motto is "Labour and manufacture makes man". And this sense of appreciation of work is beautifully exemplified in the following exhibits.

The words in this slate means "Agriculture is like a word-cut print carved with a hoe on the earth".

And here are two poems written by Syokoh Sugano (the founder's son?). The first one is called Soil:
This year again the motherly terra gave us the food for life.
If it were not for the soil, or if the soil was poor, or if we did not have the skill to make use of soil, could we exist now?
Our life is worth living because the soil is there.
The soil covers everything of our life.
When we thank the soil with our whole heart and with our enthusiasm, it will accept our heart beyond any human knowledge.
The soil lived in the past, is succeeded in the present age, and bears all the possibility in the future.

The second one is called The Way of the White:

The plowing is the ultimate contribution in agriculture.
On a good soil grow crops automatically.
This challenge which seeks for the simple original idea of agriculture is the was in which people of the same view throw away their ego, improve their inner spirit together and seek for integration and independence.
This is neither for our self-respect nor for our self-profit.
This is not meant to force the authority.
This is also by no means for the egoism of the company.
The sequential effect of the idea of the white is to seek for the harmony but not for the uniformity.
The harmony depending on the uniformity is also denied here.
This is the way of the white, the way for mastering the plow of Japan.