TagBiography

Establishing the teaching for unlocking the great human potential of all people.

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

This year, we celebrate 800 years since Nichiren Daishonin was born on February 16, 1222. Nichiren dedicated his life to propagating the Mystic Law—Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—motivated by a commitment to eradicate suffering and enable all people to reveal their innate Buddhahood. He encountered unrelenting persecution throughout his life as he sought to end the evils obstructing people’s

750 Years Since the Tatsunokuchi Persecution by Daisaku Ikeda

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, an educational reformer, openly opposed imperial Japan’s ever-growing nationalistic agenda and penchant for rote learning. He believed that educators create value by developing happy individuals who would go into society and contribute, in turn, to the well-being of others. His theory of value creation, later coined soka by his protégé, Josei Toda, focused

In making tough decisions in life, it often comes down to choosing between taking the easy way out or finding the courage to do what’s right, no matter how hard that may be. The story of Nichiren Daishonin first proclaiming his teaching offers insights into how we all can win over ourselves and find true

Daisaku Ikeda was born in Tokyo on Jan. 2, 1928, the fifth of eight children, to a family of seaweed farmers. Growing up during World War II, he endured firsthand the profound devastations of war, including the death of his eldest brother who was killed in action in Burma (present-day Myanmar). This experience as a

Born in a small fishing village in Japan, Nichiren witnessed firsthand the suffering of ordinary people in a country plagued by violence and disasters. His deep concern led him, as a young boy, to pray “to become the wisest person in Japan” in order to discover a solution (“The Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei,” The Writings of Nichiren