Daisaku Ikeda

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Daisaku Ikeda

Daisaku Ikeda (born 1928), a Japanese Buddhist writer and religious leader, was the third president of the rapidly growing Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist organization whose goal was to promote Nichiren Sho-shu, "True" Nichiren Buddhism, worldwide. He founded the Komeito or "Clean Government Party," a successful minority political party in Japan whose goal was to establish a "Buddhist democracy."

Daisaku Ikeda was born in Tokyo, Japan, on January 2, 1928, the son of a seaweed vendor. His formal education ended with graduation from Fuji Junior College. At the age of 19 he became an employee and disciple of Toda Josei. The Japanese government had imprisoned Toda and his mentor, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, for refusal to participate in the state rites of Shinto and to conform to government restrictions on religion. Upon release a year before Ikeda joined him, Toda began to reconstruct the lay Buddhist religious movement of which Makiguchi was the founder under the name Soka Gakkai, the "Value-Creation Society." On May 3, 1951, Toda became its second president. For 11 years Ikeda received intense training from Toda and accompanied him on most of his travels. On May 3, 1952, Ikeda married Kaneko Shiraki, by whom he had three sons.

Under Toda's influence Ikeda ascended in the Soka Gakkai organization until he became chief of staff of the Youth Division. During this period of successful, aggressive evangelism by the movement, when allegations of terrorism, coercion, and intimidation were made against it, Ikeda became an aggressive evangelist. Upon Toda's death on April 2, 1958, Ikeda became the general administrator and on May 3, 1960, after a period of factionalism in the movement, Ikeda was appointed its third president. His active presidency, popular personality, and close control over the movement's activities contributed to its phenomenal growth.

One of Soka Gakkai's writers said that "The history of the activities of President Ikeda is no other than the history of the growth of Soka Gakkai." Its founder, Makiguchi, was a geography teacher who with Toda was converted to the relatively small Nichiren Sho-shu, "true Nichiren sect." The sect believed it was the only true group of followers of the Japanese Buddhist prophet Nichiren (1222-1282). In the spirit of Nichiren, it taught that he, not the historical Buddha, is the true Buddha for this last age and that the only acceptable religious acts for this age are recitation of the daimokuor name of the Lotus Sutra ("Namu myoho rengekyo") and worship of the sacred diagram, or gohonzon, they believe Nichiren had drawn. Soka Gakkai is devoted to the promotion of Nichiren Sho-shu, which it considers the only true religion. Its stated purpose is "to bring peace and happiness to all mankind." With its headquarters at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Soka Gakkai considers pilgrimage to the head temple of Nichiren Sho-shu there, Taisekiji, as an important act of devotion.

Makiguchi died in prison and is considered a martyr. Toda organized the society along military lines and increased the movement's evangelistic fervor through development of the method Nichiren called shakubuku, "break and subdue." It included denunciation of rival religions and forceful argumentation to break down the resistance of potential converts. By 1957 Soka Gakkai proclaimed that it had attained its target of 750,000 families months earlier than expected.

Though continuing to maintain the exclusivism of the movement, Ikeda set out to broaden the appeal of Soka Gakkai through better public relations and tempered its open aggressiveness, while still maintaining its goal of kosen-rufu, worldwide-dissemination. After accusations of scandal in 1969, he turned the movement's attention to the formation of educational and cultural organizations, founding the Min-on Concert Association and the Oriental Institute of Academic Research in 1962 and the Fuji Art Museum in 1973. He also shifted its emphasis to international affairs and the peace movement.

In the tradition of Nichiren's teaching of obutsumyogo, "agreement in purpose of government and Buddhism," on November 17, 1964, Ikeda founded the Komeito, "Clean Government Party," based on the previous success of Soka Gakkai-supported candidates in Japanese elections. Though officially an independent party, the two work closely together. In May 1970 Ikeda announced its separation from Soka Gakkai in response to a public scandal investigation by the Japanese Diet. At the end of 1969 Soka Gakkai and Komeito had been accused of the suppression of the publication of a series of books criticizing the movement. Since then, however, Soka Gakkai-Komeito unity has, in effect, been restored. Komeito remains a minority party, but it has been successful in large metropolitan districts, taking a liberal, neutralist, pacifist, and socialist stance in Japanese politics. In 1978 it joined a more conservative alliance with the majority Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialist Party.

Ikeda wrote over 100 books and articles concerning "true" Buddhism, its history and the benefits that it can provide which lead to individual happiness and world peace. He was recognized as an honorary citizen of 46 cities in the United States and in 1975 received an honorary doctorate from Moscow State University, followed by honorary degrees from the University of San Marcos (1981), Beijing University (1984) and Fudan University (1984). Also in 1984 Ikeda received the United Nations Peace Prize, again followed by the Kenya Oral Literature Award (1986), the Chinese Peace and Friendship Trophy (1986), and the Shastri Memorial Award (India, 1990). He portrayed Soka Gakkai as a "Third Civilization," a synthesis of East and West and an alternative to East-West power blocks, and under his leadership the movement continued to spread overseas. It claimed more than 10 million adherents worldwide, with 200,000 in the United States in the mid-1980s. He resided in Tokyo.

Ikeda's more recent publications include The Human Revolution Vols. I-V (1984); Life: An Enigma, a Precious Jewel (1982); Buddhism and Cosmos (1986); and Unlocking the Mysteries of Birth and Death (1988).