TOKYO, July 3—To commemorate Mentor and Disciple Day, a day of justice in the history of the Soka Gakkai, SGI President and Mrs. Ikeda visited the Tokyo Makiguchi Memorial Hall and performed a solemn gongyo filled with determination. This visit was reported in the July 4 Seikyo Shimbun, the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper.
They chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with deep appreciation for their mentors, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda and founding President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, who had given their lives for the sake of spreading the Mystic Law. President and Mrs. Ikeda also prayed for the good health, fortune and victory of all the members of Kansai, Japan and throughout the world.
After their visit to Makiguchi Memorial Hall, they went to the Soka University campus in Tokyo, sharing their great hopes for the growth of the Soka University students, Soka Women’s College students and those from abroad studying at the institution.
President Ikeda recently wrote about the visit to Makiguchi Memorial Hall, noting that on display there is a copy of Nichiren Daishonin’s writings, which belonged to President Makiguchi. Highlighted in his copy was the following passage from the Lotus Sutra:
As the light of the sun and moon
can banish all obscurity and gloom,
so this person as he advances through the world
can wipe out the darkness of living beings.
July 3, the Day of Mentor and Disciple
July 3, 1945, was the day President Josei Toda was released from Toyotama Prison. This was two years after he and founding Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi had been arrested in July 1943 for their antiwar stance while upholding their religious belief.
On July 3, 1957, Daisaku Ikeda, then Soka Gakkai youth division chief of staff, was arrested and imprisoned by the Osaka Prefectural Police on trumped-up charges of violating the election law. At the end of the court case, which continued for over four years, he was fully exonerated of all charges in 1962.
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