CategoryOur History

Ikeda Sensei joined the Soka Gakkai on Aug. 24, 1947, 75 years ago this month. In the following essay excerpt, Ikeda Sensei describes his first Soka Gakkai meeting and how encountering his mentor, Josei Toda, became the starting point for his lifelong struggle for peace. This essay originally appeared in the Aug. 24, 2011, Seikyo

Lecture on “The Quintessence of Thought and Philosophy”‘ On August 31, 1962, just over two years since becoming Soka Gakkai president, Ikeda Sensei began a five-year series of lectures to student division members on The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, a text he referred to as “the quintessence of thought and philosophy” (The New

7/1–2 Sapporo and Yubari Rallies  In 1957, in response to the religious discrimination of Soka Gakkai members in Yubari, Hokkaido, Ikeda Sensei held rallies in Sapporo and Yubari. (See The Human Revolution, “Stormy Days” and “Yubari” chapters)   7/3 Mentor and Disciple Day In 1945, Josei Toda, then-Soka Gakkai general director, was released from prison

The skies over Tokyo were clear and the air, warm. Outside the former Soka Gakkai Headquarters in Nishi-Kanda, Tokyo, 74 young women gathered under the stars.  The recently inaugurated second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda had assembled these young women on Thursday, July 19, 1951, to establish a division of their own.   Six years

The following episode highlights the inaugural meeting of the Soka Gakkai’s young men’s division, which was founded by second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda on July 11, 1951. The text was adapted from Ikeda Sensei’s novel The Human Revolution, pp. 588–94, in which he appears as Shin’ichi Yamamoto.  That day was rainy. A few minutes

In the summer of 1957, the 29-year-old Ikeda Sensei stood up to the Yubari Coal Miners’ Association and the Osaka City Prosecutors Office. These entities felt their authority threatened by the people’s movement of the Soka Gakkai and took steps to make members abandon their faith and dismantle the organization. Recalling these events, Sensei wrote:

On June 10, 1951, just a month after being inaugurated as second Soka Gakkai president, Josei Toda gathered some 50 women’s leaders at a French restaurant in Shinjuku, Tokyo. They faced tremendous suffering in the wake of Japan’s defeat in World War II. Yet the women strove to spread Nichiren Buddhism widely to help others

6/4 SGI Ikeda Kayo-kai Day  In 2009, Ikeda Sensei and his wife, Kaneko, visited the Soka Young Women’s Center in Shinanomachi, Tokyo, for the first time and presented five eternal guidelines for the young women’s division. To commemorate this day, June 4 is celebrated as SGI Ikeda Kayo-kai Day. 6/6 First Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo

65 Years of the Student Division

5/3 Soka Gakkai Day In 1951, Josei Toda is inaugurated as second Soka Gakkai president and declares his lifetime membership goal of 750,000 households. On May 3, 1960, 32-year-old Daisaku Ikeda is inaugurated as third Soka Gakkai president, vowing to advance kosen-rufu. (See The Human Revolution, “Blazing Sun” and “New Dawn” chapters.)  Soka Gakkai Mother’s

In fall 1969, the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee sent an invitation to Soka Gakkai President Daisaku Ikeda, to meet in person and discuss religion and world affairs. Arnold Toynbee had developed an interest in Buddhist philosophy toward the end of his life; and on his third trip to Japan, in 1967, through discussions with

4/2 Josei Toda’s Passing In 1958, Second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda’s noble life of 58 years came to a close. Carrying on the final injunction of founding Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Mr. Toda had rebuilt the Soka Gakkai and achieved his lifetime membership goal of 750,000 households. This magnificent accomplishment shines eternally in

“Winter always turns to spring.” “The wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat.” “Prayers offered by a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra will be answered just as an echo answers a sound.” “Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbor doubts in our hearts, we will as a

3/5 Men’s Division Founding Day In 1966, 750 representatives gathered with Ikeda Sensei at the Soka Gakkai headquarters in Tokyo, marking the establishment of the men’s division. On that occasion, Sensei said: “Become golden pillars supporting the citadel of Soka. … If the men’s division develops remarkably and establishes a solid framework for kosen-rufu, our

In the predawn chill of March 16, 1958, some 6,000 youth gathered at the foot of Mount Fuji for a solemn ceremony with their mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda. Mr. Toda was fighting the limits of his own mortality as he searched for ways to empower as many youth as possible to assume

This year marks the 64th anniversary of March 16, 1958, when second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda passed the baton of achieving kosen-rufu to the youth. At his inauguration as Soka Gakkai president on May 3, 1951, Mr. Toda vowed to take the organization’s membership from 3,000 to 750,000 households. Many assumed that he meant

This month we celebrate the 122nd anniversary of second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda’s birth. Josei Toda was born on Feb. 11, 1900, in Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was an educator, publisher and entrepreneur who was responsible for publishing Soka kyoikugaku taikei (The System of Value-Creating Education), the seminal work

Nichiren Daishonin was born on Feb. 16, 1222, in a village on the eastern coast of Awa Province in present-day Chiba Prefecture. His family made a living as fishermen during the Kamakura Period. This was when the nation was fraught with natural disasters and power clashes within the ruling warrior class, and religious leaders sought

February 2022

In early 1952, the Soka Gakkai was still a fledgling people’s movement when second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda dispatched his young disciple Daisaku Ikeda, to Kamata Chapter to create a model for widely sharing the humanistic ideals of Nichiren Buddhism in a society still reeling from war. That February, the young Daisaku led the