SOKA GAKKAI

A modern lay Buddhist movement, Soka Gakkai means "value-creating society." It arose and has its principal strength in Japan, but has followers in the U.S. and other countries as well. Originally associated with Nichiren Shoshu, one of several groups based on the reinterpretation of Buddhism by the Japanese teacher Nichiren Daishonin (1222–82). Soka Gakkai's origins go back to 1930, when its founder, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944), published the first of four volumes of his Value-Creating Pedagogical System. It was formally organized in 1937 in Tokyo and by 1941 had some 3,000 members. Refusal to support Shintoism during World War II brought virtual destruction of the movement, however, and Makiguchi died in prison.

In 1946 the movement was revived by his chief disciple, Josei Toda (1900–58). In the wake of national defeat, Soka Gakkai appealed to many Japanese as a new religious force, but one that, unlike Christianity, was deeply rooted in Japanese history. A stress on health and prosperity gave mass appeal, and members were offered a wide array of cultural activities. Counting membership in households, and never subtracting those who may have drifted away, Soka Gakkai reported growth from 3,000 families in 1951 to 750,000 in 1957, to more than 6 million by the end of the 20th century. Meanwhile it had become involved in politics, electing its first representatives to the Diet in 1956 and organizing its political arm, Komeito (Clean Government Party), in 1964.

Its organizational discipline led some outsiders to fear it was reviving the spirit of militarism. And it disturbed many Japanese by its outspoken intolerance of other religions and its aggressive shakubuku (break and subdue) methods of winning converts. Talk of converting all Japan and building a national temple disturbed those who considered the idea of a state religion detrimental. But these particular goals were deemphasized under Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai leader after Toda, and some of the militancy subsided.

Since the seventies the Komeito was Japan's third largest party. It stresses nationalism, world peace, and opposition to corruption. It calls for a somewhat vaguely defined Buddhist democracy, rejecting both liberal and Marxist democracy. Soka Gakkai spiritual life centers on chanting Nichiren's phrase Nam-myoho Renge-kyo (devotion to the wonderful lotus sutra), and each household is given a replica of the Dai-gohonzon, the sacred tablet on which Nichiren is said to have written the phrase. The original is in the chief Nichiren Shoshu temple at Taisekiji, at the foot of Mt. Fuji.

In the U.S. Soka Gakkai's initial adherents were primarily Japanese immigrants, including a number who had married U.S. servicemen. In some cases the American spouses became members, and Soka Gakkai subsequently won considerable numbers of other American converts. Since 1964 Soka Gakkai in the U.S. has gone under the name Nichiren Shoshu.

Bibliography: t. kubo, The Development of Japanese Lay Buddhism (Tokyo 1986). d. a. metraux, The History and Theology of Soka Gakkai: A Japanese New Religion (Lewiston, NY 1988). j. d. hurst, Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai in America: The Ethos of a New Religious Movement (New York 1992). d. a. metraux, The Soka Gakkai Revolution (Lanham, Md.1994). p. e. hammond and d. w. machacek, Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and Conversion (Oxford/New York 1999). d. w. machacek and b. r. wilson, Global Citizens: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World (Oxford/New York 2000).

[t. early/eds.]