by the Golden Gate Mentor and Disciple Zone[1] team
What is your zone motto? Unite! Fight! Win!—GGMD No. 1!
Tell us briefly about your zone’s history. Our current zone was formed on Aug. 16, 2009. It was previously a part of Northern California Zone, which was formed when the three SGI-USA territories—West, Central and East—were created in 2007. By 2009, we split into two zones, and ours was named Golden Gate Mentor and Disciple (GGMD) Zone. Among his five trips to the San Francisco Bay area, Ikeda Sensei visited what is now GGMD Zone on four different occasions.
On his first visit in October 1960, Sensei’s party crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to view the redwood forest at Muir Woods in Marin County. During his third visit to the San Francisco Bay area in 1974, Sensei visited the University of California, Berkeley, campus, where he met with then-chancellor Albert Bowker, donated books to the institution and encouraged student division members.
In 1993, on his fifth and final visit to Northern California, Sensei stayed in Marin County. During this time, he visited UC Berkeley for a second time, meeting with then-chancellor Chang-Lin Tien.
On April 27, 2002, the “Gandhi, King, Ikeda: A Legacy of Building Peace” exhibition opened on UC Berkeley’s campus. Officiated by Lawrence E. Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, the exhibition opened to the public on May 3. In June of that year, it was mounted in a public space in the city of Oakland with the mayor in attendance.
On May 3, 2021, the two-block portion of Opal Street in front of the Oakland Buddhist Center, was named by the city “Daisaku Ikeda Way.”
Do you have a Buddhist Center(s) in your zone? Yes. We have tremendous appreciation for the centers in our zone: the Oakland Buddhist Center; the East Bay Buddhist Center in Richmond; the Redwood Coast Buddhist Center in Santa Rosa; and the Sacramento Buddhist Center.
Does your zone have a particular point of pride? Definitely! One is being given the name Golden Gate Mentor Disciple Zone by Sensei. In our zone’s name, “Mentor and Disciple” is constant inspiration for us to unite with our mentor. And “Golden Gate” harkens to the guidance Sensei gave on his first trip in 1960 viewing a cross-section of the Golden Gate Bridge’s main cable.
The display explains that the one-meter diameter cable is actually made up of thousands of small wires that together give it strength. Sensei said: “This resembles the unity of many in body one in mind. In the Soka Gakkai, too, though each person’s strength may be small, when that strength is combined and members are firmly united, they can display unimaginable power. Unity is strength” (The New Human Revolution, vol. 1, revised edition, p. 119).
During his first trip to the U.S. in 1960, the first two districts that Sensei established on the U.S. mainland were San Francisco District and Nevada District. Nevada District, which had only two members—the two district leaders—eventually became Reno Chapter, which today is part of GGMD Zone. At that time, Sensei encouraged the newly appointed leaders of Nevada District, saying: “The real basis of the Soka Gakkai is each district that composes it. One could even say that the district itself is the Soka Gakkai” (NHR-1, revised edition, 113).
What is essential for you as a zone? In a message marking our zone’s formation, Sensei wrote in part: “San Francisco and Northern California is the source, the origin of the river of the American kosen-rufu movement. …. No human solidarity is as strong or as beautiful as the unity of comrades who struggle together for the advancement of kosen-rufu” (Aug. 28, 2009, World Tribune, pp. 1, 8). This is the guidance and expectation from Sensei that we intend to respond to.
Do you have something that is unique to your zone? GGMD Zone ranges from the east side of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, north to the Oregon border, east to include the Sierra Nevada and Northern Nevada and south through the San Joaquin Valley to communities south of Fresno. It includes the redwood forests along the coast, the wine country of Napa Valley, the state capital of Sacramento, Yosemite Valley, UC Berkeley, the original campus of the UC system, as well as UC Merced and UC Davis, eight California State University campuses and numerous other institutions of higher education. Oakland is also one of the four most important ports on the West Coast.
What’s your vision toward 2030? As one of the first places in the world that Sensei visited in 1960, our vision toward 2030 is to vastly increase our membership. Responding to Sensei in the time we are in right now, it is critical to support and encourage young people. We are striving for the great development of campus clubs and to foster all our young successors to carry our mentor’s spirit.
August 8, 2025 World Tribune, p.10
References
- The name Golden Gate Mentor and Disciple Zone was given by Ikeda Sensei. The SGI-USA today names organizations based on geographical location to denote both a sense of responsibility and pride for advancing kosen-rufu in the local community. ↩︎
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