Childhood
Konosuke Matsushita was born on November 27, 1894 in Wakayama prefecture. His father was an affluent landlord in the farming village of Wasa, in the Wakayama Prefecture. Matsushita was born into a well-to-do family but the family became impoverished because his father made some bad investment decisions, primarily in rice speculation. In 1899, the family's entire fortune was gone and anything of value was sold off. The family was forced to move to a cramped three bedroom city apartment where conditions were less than sanitary. There was always a lack of food, clothing, and medical care. Within several years, Matsushita's health declined rapidly and three of his older siblings died due to infectious diseases. Matsushita's formal education ended at the age of nine.
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Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Oh! mystery of man, from what a depth
Proceed thy honours. I am lost, but see
In simple childhood something of the base
On which thy greatness stands; but this I feel,
That from thyself it comes, that thou must give,
Else never canst receive. The days gone by
Return upon me almost from the dawn
Of life: the hiding-places of man’s power
Open; I would approach them, but they close.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
“She that but little patience knew,
From childhood on, had now so much
A grey gull lost its fear and flew
Down to her cell and there alit,
And there endured her fingers’ touch
And from her fingers ate its bit.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)