Soka Gakkai International

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Sōka Gakkai International. One of the most successful of the new Buddhist sects, the Sōka Gakkai (Value Creation Society) is an offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism. The organization was first formed in 1937 by Makiguchi Tsunesaburō (1871–1944) and Toda Josei (1900–58), two men who had known each other since 1920 and had joined the Nichiren Shoshū together in 1928. They called their new group the Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai (Value Creation Education Society). Their original goal was to organize educators and promote a value-based educational system in place of the rote-learning emphasized at that time. They found a suitable religious framework in Nichiren Buddhism, with its emphasis at that time on human life and peace. However, their activities and conviction put them at variance with the militarist stance of the government going into the Second World War, and both were imprisoned in 1943. On 18 November 1944, Makiguchi died at the age of 73 in the Tokyo Detention House. Toda survived, and was released from prison in 1945. He set out to rebuild the organization, which had suffered a decline with the imprisonment of its leadership. He renamed it Sōka Gakkai, and sought to expand its mission outside of the field of education to reach society as a whole. He changed the direction of the group's teaching and activities. Whereas Makiguchi had stressed his theory of value and the responsibility of the individual to learn how to evaluate, or create value, properly, Toda turned the organization in a more religious direction, stressing the pursuit of happiness and the efficacy of the Lotus Sūtra, and in particular the chanting of its title as per Nichiren's teachings, as the key to its attainment. His energy and dedication paid off: the Sōka Gakkai grew rapidly under his leadership, to more than 750,000 households by the time of his death in 1958. The presidency of the organization was assumed in 1960 by Daisaku Ikeda (1928– ), who had joined several years before at the age of 19.

Ikeda undertook many initiatives to expand the Sōka Gakkai's membership still further, and also established many other educational, cultural, and political ventures. In January 1975 the Sōka Gakkai International was created, with Ikeda as its first president, and in April 1979 he stepped down as the Sōka Gakkai president, becoming honorary president, in order to further concentrate on the needs of the world-wide membership. In 1992, he officially separated the SGI from its parent group, the Nichiren Shoshū. At that time the group was estimated to have 8 million members. (The Nichiren Shoshū, for its part, excommunicated Ikeda and the SGI for arrogance and deviations from correct doctrine.) The SGI has been controversial for several reasons. Following Nichiren's own example, they practised a very aggressive form of proselytization called ‘shakubuku’ during the 1960s and 1970s, which contributed to their rapid growth, but alienated many in Japanese society who decried such confrontational methods. They also entered the field of politics in 1955, when a member was elected to the Tokyo prefectural assembly. The SGI responded by forming the Komeikai, or ‘clean government association’, in 1962 to promote ethics in office, changing the title to Komeitō, or ‘clean government party’ in 1964. This party, which claims to be above bribery and corruption and to encourage resistance to militarism, is the third largest party in Japan, and has suffered some criticism for its blending of politics and religion. Many of these practices (and thus the criticism that they draw) have ameliorated since the 1990s, and in contemporary Japan the SGI is a mainstream lay Buddhist organization with a large international presence.

Soka Gakkai [Jap.,=Value Creation Society], Japan-based independent lay Buddhist movement. A theological offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism, it was founded (1930) as the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai [Value Creation Educational Society] by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, educator and follower of the Nichiren Sho sect, to promote his ideas for educational reform, but by 1940 the group concentrated on the propagation of Nichiren Buddhism. The government disbanded the group and arrested its leaders during World War II for its criticism of the Japanese involvement in the war.

In 1945 the group was reorganized and renamed the Soka Gakkai by Makiguchi's disciple, Josei Toda. The society's promises to help adherents achieve happiness and success appealed to millions of Japanese in the difficult years of the postwar era; the movement also stresses the need for world peace. Under its third leader, Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai experienced enormous growth; it has now spread to over 120 countries and has 1.26 million members outside Japan, including 330,000 in the United States; within Japan there are 10 million members. In 1975, Soka Gakkai International was established as the worldwide association for the movement; Ikeda became its president. Soka Gakkai has its own educational system (including Soka Univ. in Aliso Viejo, Calif.), publishing facilites, and cultural institutions that include two museums. Often criticized for its evangelism and exclusiveness, Soka Gakkai had developed ties with many outside organizations by the early 1990s and had become a nongovernmental organization member of the United Nations.

In 1964 the Soka Gakkai organized Komeito, an independent political party that became the second largest opposition party in the Diet. In 1993-94, Komeito was part of the multiparty government led by Morihiro Hosokawa . Komeito was dissolved in 1994 as part of a realignment among Japanese opposition parties, but the parties that arose from it reunited in 1998 to form New Komeito. Since 1999 New Komeito has been a junior partner in the Liberal Democratic-led government.

Bibliography: See J. White, The Soka Gakkai and Mass Society (1970); D. A. Metraux, The History and Theology of Soka Gakkai (1988); P. E. Hammond, Soka Gakkai in America (1999).

Sōka Gakkai (Jap., ‘Association for Creating Values’). Religious movement deriving from Nichiren Shōshū and closely related to it. In 1930, Makiguchi Tsunesaburō (1871–1944) and Toda Jōsei (1900–58) founded the Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai. It became Sōka Gakkai (and a specifically religious movement) in 1937. Through aggressive proselytization and through its journal, Kachi Sōzō (The Creation of Value), the group disseminated Makiguchi's philosophy.

In 1943, the government tried to unify all Nichiren sects, but this was resisted by Makiguchi and Toda. They were arrested, ostensibly on the charge of advising their followers not to purchase amulets from the national Ise Shrine. Makiguchi died in prison, but Toda deepened his faith greatly through his reading in prison. When released, he reconstructed the organization, and in 1952 it was incorporated as an independent religious institution. It rapidly became a multi-million-member organization, extending beyond Japan to other parts of the world, especially the USA and France. It possessed what was at the time of its building the largest temple on earth, on the slopes of Mount Fuji. Under Ikeda Daisaku, Sōka Gakkai established a political party, Komei-to, the party of clean government. Initially, Sōka Gakkai had strongly exclusivist attitudes, following Nichiren in regarding other religions as false and other Buddhist sects as heretical. It was accused of forced conversions through its technique of shakubuku, breaking and subduing. However, since the 1970s, there has been a moderation of its extreme views.