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Daisaku Ikeda (池田 大作, Ikeda Daisaku, born January 2, 1928, Japan) is the founder and current president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the international offshoot of Soka Gakkai, a Japanese new religious movement informed by the teachings of Nichiren which, according to its own account, has more than 12 million members. In 1996, he was described in a Los Angeles Times article as a "puzzle of conflicting perceptions", ranging from "Japan's most powerful man" and a "threat to democracy", to an "inspired teacher" and "man of deep learning". Ikeda and Soka Gakkai have been the frequent targets of criticism for fostering a cult of personality centered on Ikeda.

A period around 2010 when Ikeda was not seen in public led to speculation about his health. In 2011, a newsweekly known for its adversarial relationship with Soka Gakkai reported that he was terminally ill. He was seen accepting an honorary degree and delivering a speech in March 2013.

Biography

Early life

Ikeda was born the fifth son of seaweed farmers in Ōta, Tokyo. His four older brothers fought in World War II, during which the eldest, Kiichi, was killed in action and his familyʼs home destroyed.

Involvement with the Soka Gakkai

In August 1947, Ikeda met Josei Toda at a Soka Gakkai discussion meeting and joined the organization that month. In April 1948, Ikeda entered the night school of Taisei Gakuin (later Tokyo Fuji University). He left it in the same year and spent the next few years shifting his employment between various Toda-owned enterprises. Ikeda was a charter member of the Soka Gakkai's Youth Division and its leader by 1953.

In 1952, Ikeda was one of the leaders in harassing Nichiren Shōshū priest Jimon Ogasawara. Ogasawara had allegedly cooperated with the authorities during the war against Soka Gakkai's founder Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, who had died imprisoned, before the end of the war. Ikeda and Toda headed a group of 4,000 men belonging to the Youth Division to the Taiseki-ji, the Nichiren Shōshū head temple. When Ogasawara initially refused to apologize, the men tore off his vestments and tagged him with a placard reading "racoon monk." He was then forcibly carried to Makiguchi's grave, where he was made to sign a written apology. Ikeda, who admitted to hitting the priest "once or twice" later referred to the incident as an "act of kindness" because "the old priest, made to realize his apostasy, was grateful to Toda and Soka Gakkai and died a happy man."

Soka Gakkai lore places the highest value on Ikeda's leadership of the propagation campaign in Kansai Chapter, western Japan, in 1955-1956. This area of Japan had very small numbers of Soka Gakkai members when compared to Tokyo. Yet in April 1956 and May 1956 it broke all precedent in membership growth with results of 9,000 and 11,111 new families respectively. Ikeda devoted an entire chapter, "Determination," of his roman à clef The Human Revolution to accounting the massively successful two-year campaign which resulted in the electoral victory of a Kansai Soka Gakkai member to the Japanese Diet. Ikeda details here his efforts to personally develop his life and faith ("human revolution"), involve members in the practical study of Nichiren's writings and the teachings and guidances of Josei Toda, finding and developing capable grassroots leaders, building ties of friendship and trust, tight communication, participation in small local discussion meetings, and instruction on how to overcome setbacks in life. These efforts led to an explosion of members' happiness and very natural propagation efforts.

In July 3, 1957, Ikeda was arrested in Osaka in his capacity as the Youth Division Chief of Staff, for overseeing activities that constituted violations of Japanese election law. He spent two weeks in jail and appeared in court forty-eight times before he was cleared of all charges in January 1962.

Ikeda regarded Toda as his spiritual mentor and writes that he influenced him through "the profound compassion that characterized each of his interactions".

Presidency after Toda

After Toda's death in 1958, Ikeda succeeded his mentor to become the third President of Soka Gakkai in 1960, after which he began to travel abroad to realize Toda's vision of expanding the Soka Gakkai movement.

While Soka Gakkai saw its most dramatic growth after the World War II under the leadership of Toda, Ikeda led the international growth of the organization and turned it into what has been called the largest, most diverse international lay Buddhist association in the world. He reformed many of the organizations more controversial practices, such as the aggressive and sometimes forced conversions (shakubuku (折伏)) the group was infamous for in Japan and did much to improve the organization's public image, though it was still widely viewed with suspicion in Japan.

By the 1970s Ikeda's leadership had expanded the Soka Gakkai into an international lay Buddhist movement increasingly active in peace, cultural and educational activities and shifting away from "a very rigid fundamentalistic and evangelical stance." For example, in September, 1974, Ikeda visited the former Soviet Union, and met with the premier, Aleksey N. Kosygin, on September 17 of that year. "We must abandon the very idea of war," said Kosygin. "It is meaningless. If we stop preparing for war and prepare instead for peace, we can produce food instead of armaments." He asked Ikeda, "Mr. Ikeda, what is your basic ideology?" Ikeda replied, "I believe in peace, culture and education -- the underlying basis of which is humanism." "I have a high regard for those values," Kosygin said. "We need to realize them here in the Soviet Union as well.",

In 1975, at an international meeting of member representatives held in Guam, Soka Gakkai formed Soka Gakkai International (SGI) to support its overseas membership. Ikeda took a leading role in this development and, at the request of the membership, became President of SGI.

Resignation from Soka Gakkai presidency

In 1979, Ikeda resigned as the president of Soka Gakkai, accepting responsibility for its purported deviation from Nichiren Shōshū doctrines, and the accompanying conflict with the priesthood. Nichiren Shōshū was the Buddhist denomination to which Soka Gakkai had belonged since its founding, but the relationship between the two was often a strained one. Ikeda was succeeded by Hiroshi Hojo, but remained president of the SGI and was also made Soka Gakkai Honorary President. He, along with Soka Gakkai, was excommunicated by Nichiren Shōshū on August 11, 1992. SGI members often describe their group as Buddhism's first Protestant movement, since its excommunication by Nichiren Shōshū in 1991.

Under Ikeda's leadership SGI has developed as a broad-based grassroots peace movement around the world. He has fostered among SGI members a strong ethos of responsibility for the society with global citizenship spirit.

Accomplishments

Ikeda has founded several institutions, including Soka University in Japan and Soka University of America; Soka primary to secondary schools in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brazil and Singapore; the Victor Hugo House of Literature, in France; the International Committee of Artists for Peace in the US; the Min-On Concert Association in Japan; the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum in Japan; the Institute of Oriental Philosophy in Japan with offices in France, Hong Hong, India, Russia and the United Kingdom; and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research in Japan and the United States.

In 1994 the Soka Gakkai collaborated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles, a Jewish human rights organization to combat anti-Semitism in Japan. After reaching out to the Japanese media, Rabbi Abraham Cooper says they were getting nowhere. “The truth is, the only partners we found to help us bring our concerns to the Japanese public were the people from Soka University under the leadership of Daisaku Ikeda.” They developed a Japanese version of the traveling Holocaust exhibit, ‘The Courage to Remember’ that has been seen by over two million people.

Ikeda has guided Soka Gakkai's support of, and involvement in, the New Komeito Party (Komeito), a Japanese political party which, as of 2007, is part of a governing coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan. He has supported the Earth Charter Initiative and a documentary film about the environment, A Quiet Revolution.

The “Gandhi, King, Ikeda: A Legacy of Building Peace” exhibition showcases the peace activism of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Ikeda. Lawrence Carter, an ordained Baptist minister and the dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, initiated the annual Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders prize as a way of extolling those whose actions for peace have cut across human boundaries. When a Shūkan Shinchō article criticized these aspects of the award, Carter wrote a protest to the magazine:

"Controversy" is an inevitable partner of greatness. No one who challenges the established order is free of it. Gandhi had his detractors, as did Dr. King. Dr. Ikeda is no exception. Controversy camouflages the intense resistance of entrenched authority to conceding their special status and privilege. "Insults" are the weapons of the morally weak; "slander" is the tool of the spiritually bereft. Controversy is testament to the noble work of these three individuals in their respective societies.

The houses of representatives in Georgia, Missouri, and Illinois recognize the service and dedication of Daisaku Ikeda "who has dedicated his entire life to building peace and promoting human rights through education and cultural exchange with deep conviction in the shared humanity of our entire global family" in which he "values education and culture as the prerequisites for the creation of true peace in which the dignity and fundamental rights of all people are respected."

He is an honorary member of the Club of Rome.

International initiatives

Ikeda’s meetings with public figures have raised awareness of the SGI’s Buddhist movement in host countries, facilitated relationships with cultural and educational institutions he has founded, and lent support, for example, to SGI-sponsored traveling exhibits on global issues. For their contributions to diplomatic as well as intercultural ties between Japan and other countries, these meetings and relationships have been described by some as citizen diplomacy.

Coverage in SGI publications suggests Ikeda's meetings and dialogues illustrate the SGI movement’s commitment to peace, environmental concerns and humanitarianism. Observers suggest the body of literature chronicling Ikeda’s more than 7,000 dialogues provides SGI members with a personal education and model of citizen diplomacy and, from a scholarly view, represents “a new current in interculturalism and educational philosophy.”

Ikeda’s first meeting with Nelson Mandela, in 1990, led to SGI-sponsored anti-apartheid lectures, a traveling exhibit and student exchanges at the university level.

Ikeda made several visits to China and, in 1974, met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, establishing cultural exchanges of art, dance and music between China and Japan and opening academic exchanges between Chinese educational institutions and Soka University. Chinese media describe Ikeda as an early proponent of normalizing diplomatic relations between China and Japan in the 1970s, citing his 1968 proposal that drew condemnation by some and the interest of others including Zhou Enlai. It was said that Zhou Enlai entrusted Ikeda with ensuring that “Sino-Japanese friendship would continue for generations to come.” Since 1975 cultural exchanges between the Min-On Concert Association, founded by Ikeda, and institutions including the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries have continued. An observer estimated in 1984, after Ikeda’s visit to China and meetings with public figures including Chinese Communist Party Leader Hu Yaobang and Deng Yingchao, that Ikeda’s 1968 proposal may have contributed to Japanese public sentiment on closer diplomatic ties with China and that Ikeda’s cultivation of educational and cultural ties helped strengthen state relations.

Honorary doctorates and professorships

Ikeda received his 300th degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston on November 21, 2010. He has said that "The academic honors I have accepted have all been on behalf of the members of SGI around the world."

Other awards

• United Nations Peace Award (1983, USA)
• Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award (1993, USA)
• International Tolerance Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (1993, Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Tagore Peace Award (1997, India)
• Rizal International Peace Award (1998, the Philippines) from the Knights of Rizal
• International Literary Award for Understanding and Friendship (2003, Beijing, China) from the China Literature Foundation and Chinese Writersʼ Association
• Jamnalal Bajaj Award (2005, India) for "Outstanding Contribution in Promotion of Gandhian Values Outside India by Individuals other than Indian Citizens"
• Order of Friendship (2008, Russia)
• Gold Medal for Peace with Justice from the Sydney Peace Foundation (2009, Australia)
• Indology Award (2011, India) for “outstanding contribution in the field of Indic research and Oriental wisdom” from Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Golden Heart Award (2012, the Philippines) from the Knights of Rizal

Meetings with foreign leaders

Among the hundreds of meetings between Ikeda and foreign leaders are some that have subsequently proved embarrassing, notably the occasion when he was photographed together with Romanian General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu and repeated meetings with military dictator Manuel Noriega of Panama. Ikeda had an especially close relationship with Noriega. Both were self-educated men with strong personalities and intellectual ambitions. Noriega repeatedly visited the Taiseki-ji and Noriega hosted Ikeda on several visits to Panama. Both leaders praised each other's virtues in public statements. After a 1981 visit, Noriega named a scenic observation point on one of the Causeway Islands at the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal "Mirador Ikeda", and he presented Ikeda with the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The Soka Gakkai reciprocated by creating a "Noriega Garden" at one of its locales in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka.

Friends of Noriega and anonymous American sources have alleged that Ikeda provided him with several million dollars' worth of assistance during the worst part of Noriega's crisis in 1987 and 1988, though Soka Gakkai spokesmen have repeatedly denied this. The "Noriega Garden" was unceremoniously destroyed after Noriega's arrest.

Personal life

Ikeda lives in Tokyo with his wife, Kaneko (born 1932), whom he married on May 3, 1952. He has three sons, Hiromasa (born 1953; Vice-president of Soka Gakkai), Shirohisa (1955–1984), and Takahiro (born 1958).

Critical commentary

A 1995 San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Japan Fears Another Religious Sect" outlined charges in Japan of "heavy-handed fund raising and proselytizing , as well as intimidating its foes and trying to grab political power". It quotes Takashi Shokei, a professor at Meisei University, as describing Ikeda as "a power-hungry individual who intends to take control of the government and make Soka Gakkai the national religion"; the article describes a videotape made in 1993 of Ikeda "yelling and pounding on tables in anger and later railing against President Clinton for having refused to meet with him".

A 1995 Time article criticized Daisaku Ikeda and Soka Gakkai, claiming that "according to a member who was present" Ikeda, as "honorary president and unquestioned commander" of Soka Gakkai, had said of Komeito: "This time, not the next time, is going to be about winning or losing. We cannot hesitate. We must conquer the country with one stroke."

In 1999, The New York Times published an article on the uneasy rise of the New Komeito Party in Japan (funded largely by Ikeda and Soka Gakkai). In response, a letter to the editor by Alfred Balitzer (later of Soka University of America) offered a more sympathetic portrayal of Soka Gakkai.

Books

Ikeda is understood, at least by SGI members, to be a prolific writer, peace activist and interpreter of Nichiren Buddhism. His interests in photography, art, philosophy, poetry and music are reflected in his published works. In his essay collections and dialogues with political, cultural, and educational figures he discusses, among other topics: the transformative value of religion, the universal sanctity of life, social responsibility, and sustainable progress and development.

The 1976 publication of Choose Life: A Dialogue (in Japanese, Nijusseiki e no taiwa) is the published record of dialogues and correspondences that began in 1971 between Ikeda and British historian Arnold J. Toynbee about the “convergence of East and West” on contemporary as well as perennial topics ranging from the human condition to the role of religion and the future of human civilization. Toynbee’s 12-volume A Study of History had been translated into Japanese, which along with his lecture tours and periodical articles about social, moral and religious issues gained him popularity in Japan. To an expat’s letter critical of Toynbee’s association with Ikeda and Soka Gakkai, Toynbee wrote back: “I agree with Soka Gakkai on religion as the most important thing in human life, and on opposition to militarism and war." To another letter critical of Ikeda, Toynbee responded: “Mr. Ikeda’s personality is strong and dynamic and such characters are often controversial. My own feeling for Mr. Ikeda is one of great respect and sympathy.” British journalist and political commentator Polly Toynbee, an avowed atheist, was invited to meet Ikeda in 1984 in memory of her grandfather. (According to Peter Popham, writing about Tokyo architecture and culture, Ikeda "was hoping to tighten the public connection between himself and Polly Toynbee's famous grandfather, Arnold Toynbee, the prophet of the rise of the East.") Polly Toynbee described Ikeda as "a short, round man with slicked down hair, wearing a sharp Western suit"; they talked from "throne-like" chairs in "an enormous room" reached via "corridors of bowing girls dressed in white". She wrote "I have met many powerful men--prime ministers, leaders of all kinds--but I have never in my life met anyone who exudes such an aura of absolute power as Mr. Ikeda." In The Guardian on May 19, 1984, she also voiced the wish that her grandfather would not have endorsed their dialogue, Choose Life: A Dialogue. She wrote, "I telephoned a few people round the world who had been visited by Ikeda. There was a certain amount of discomfort at being asked, and an admission by several that they felt they had been drawn into endorsing him." As of 2012, the book had been translated and published in twenty-six languages.

Ikeda's many children's books have been animated into anime.

Human Revolution

Ikeda's most well-known publication is the novel Human Revolution (Ningen Kakumei), which was serialized in the Gakkai's Seikyo Shimbun. In 1978, as the Gakkai entered a dispute with Nichiren Shoshu, the text of Human Revolution was altered in over 40 places. However, these revisions were not mentioned in the book's publication history, and the Gakkai does not acknowledge that any changes have been made.

Selected works

• A Dialogue Between East and West: Looking to a Human Revolution (Echoes and Reflections: The Selected Works of Daisaku Ikeda) with Ricardo Diez-Hochleitner, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008; ISBN 978-1845116002 (Hardback), ISBN 978-1845116002 (Paperback)
• A Lifelong Quest for Peace with Linus Pauling (May 2000), Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1st edition, ISBN 978-0867202786 (Hardback), ISBN 0-86720-277-7 (Paperback); London and New York: I. B. Tauris, Reprint edition 2008; ISBN 978-1845118891
• A Passage to Peace: Global Solutions from East and West with Nur Yalman, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009; ISBN 9781845119225 (Hardback), ISBN 9781845119232 (Paperback)
• A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics, and the Nuclear Threat with Joseph Rotblat, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006; ISBN 978-1845112790
• A Youthful Diary: One Man's Journey from the Beginning of Faith to Worldwide Leadership for Peace, Santa Monica, California: World Tribune Press, 2006; ISBN 978-1932911190
• America Will Be!: Conversations on Hope, Freedom, and Democracy, with Vincent Harding, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Dialogue Path Press, 2013; ISBN 978-1887917100
• Before It Is Too Late with Aurelio Peccei, (1985), Kodansha America, 1st edition, ISBN 978-0870117008; London and New York: I. B. Tauris Reprint edition, 2008; ISBN 978-1845118884
• Buddhism: A Way of Values" with Lokesh Chandra, New Delhi: Eternal Ganges Press, 2009; ISBN 978-81-907191-2-4
• Buddhism: the First Millennium, (1977), Kodansha International, ISBN 9780870113215 (Hardback); Santa Monica, California: Middleway Press, Reprint edition, 2009; ISBN 978-0977924530
• Choose Hope: Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age with David Krieger, Santa Monica, California: Middleway Press, 2002; ISBN 0-967-46976-7
• Choose Life: A Dialogue with Arnold J. Toynbee, Richard L. Gage (Editor), (1976), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192152589; London and New York: I. B. Tauris, Reprint edition, 2008; ISBN 978-1845115951
• Choose Peace: A Dialogue Between Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda with Johan Galtung, London: Pluto Press, 1999; ISBN 978-0745310404
• Compassionate Light in Asia with Jin Yong, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2013; ISBN 978-1848851986
• Creating Waldens: An East-West Conversation on the American Renaissance with Ronald A. Bosco and Joel Myerson, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Dialogue Path Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1887917070
• Dawn After Dark with René Huyghe, (1991), Weatherhill, ISBN 9780834802384; London and New York: I. B. Tauris, Reprint edition, 2008; ISBN 978-1845115968
• Dialogue of World Citizens with Norman Cousins, (tentative translation from Japanese), Sekai shimin no taiwa, 世界市民の対話, Paperback edition, Tokyo, Japan: Seikyo Shimbunsha, 2000; ISBN 978-4412010772
• Discussions on Youth, Santa Monica, California: World Tribune Press, 2010; ISBN 978-1-932911-93-0
• Embracing the Future, Tokyo: The Japan Times, 2008; ISBN 978-4-7890-1316-1
• Fighting for Peace, Berkeley, California: Creative Arts Book Company, 2004; ISBN 0-88739-618-6
• For the Sake of Peace: A Buddhist Perspective for the 21st Century, Santa Monica, California: Middleway Press, 2001; ISBN 978-0967469720
• Glass Children and Other Essays, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979; ISBN 0-87011-375-5
• Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue With Majid Tehranian, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008; ISBN 978-1860648106
• Human Rights on the 21st Century with Austregesilo de Athayde, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009; ISBN 978-1845119881
• Human Values in a Changing World: A Dialogue on the Social Role of Religion, with Bryan Wilson. Reprint edition. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008; ISBN 978-1845115975
• Humanity at the Crossroads: An Intercultural Dialogue with Karan Singh, New Delhi: Oxford University Press India, 1988; ISBN 978-0195622157
• Into Full Flower: Making Peace Cultures Happen with Elise Boulding, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Dialogue Path Press, 2010; ISBN 978-1887917087
• Journey of Life: Selected Poems of Daisaku Ikeda, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2014; ISBN 9781780769691
• Kanta and the Deer (children's book), New York: Weatherhill, 1997; ISBN 978-0834804067
• 'La fuerza de la Esperanza; Reflexiones sobre la paz y los derechos humanos en el tercer milenio' (dialogue between Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Dr. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Daisaku Ikeda), Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores,2011; ISBN 9789500434126

Notes

References

1. "Daisaku Ikeda Profile". Soka University. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
2. "Profile: Soka Gakkai International". Civil Society Participation. NGO Branch, UN Dept of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
3. Watanabe, Teresa (15 March 1996). "Japan's Crusader or Corrupter?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
4. Bluck, Robert (2008). British Buddhism Teachings, Practice and Development. Routledge. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0415483087.
5. Befu, edited by Harumi; Guichard-Anguis, Sylvie (2003). Globalizing Japan: ethnography of the Japanese presence in Asia, Europe, and America (1. publ. ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0415285667. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
6. Prohl, edited by Inken; Nelson, John (2012). Handbook of contemporary Japanese religions. Leiden: Brill. pp. 300–302. ISBN 978-9004234352. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
7. "Komeito: Searching for Party Reconstruction". Japan Quarterly. 28 (2). Asahi Shimbun-Sha: 155. January–March 1981. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
8. Harding, edited by John S.; Hori, Victor Sōgen; Soucy, Alexander (2010). Wild geese: Buddhism in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0773536678. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
9. Petersen, edited by James R. Lewis, Jesper Aagaard (2004). Controversial new religions ( ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0195156836. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. Métraux, Daniel A. (1994). The Soka Gakkai revolution. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. p. 58. ISBN 978-0819197337.
11. Jones, Ken (2003). The new social face of Buddhism: an alternative sociopolitical perspective. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications. pp. 197–198. ISBN 978-0861713653.
12. 『週刊新潮』2011年2月10日号
13. "創価学会 池田大作先生 フィリピンの大学の名誉博士号授与式". www.youtube.com.
14. Ikeda, Daisaku (May 11, 1998). "My Mother". The Mirror Weekly(The Philippines).
15. M. LaVora Perry (2010). PeaceBuilders--Daisaku Ikeda & Josei Toda, Buddhist Leaders. Fortune Child Books. ISBN 978-0977111312.
16. ^ Timeline of Ikeda's life, daisakuikeda.org. Accessed 6 November 2013.
17. Kisala, Robert (2000). Prophets of peace: Pacifism and cultural identity in Japan's new religions. Honolulu, HI, USA: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0824822675.
18. ^ Seager, Richard Hughes. Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006.
19. In Japanese folklore, the tanuki or Japanese raccoon dog is regarded as a sly and deceptive being with shapeshifting powers. The word is still used in contemporary Japanese to refer to slyness and deception. See the definition of tanuki in Kōjien (2nd ed.): 他人を欺くこと。また、そのひと。
20. Montgomery, Daniel B. (1991). Fire in the lotus: the dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren. London: Mandala. ISBN 978-1852740917, Page 187
21. ^ Murata, Kiyoaki (1969). Japan's new Buddhism: an objective account of Soka Gakkai (. ed.). New York: Weatherhill. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0834800403.
22. Shimada, Hiromi (2008). Sōkagakkai (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shinchōsha. ISBN 978-4106100727. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
23. Montgomery, Daniel B. (1991). Fire in the lotus: the dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren. London: Mandala. ISBN 978-1852740917.
24. Ikeda, Daisaku (2004). The Human Revolution. Santa Monica, CA: World Tribune Press. pp. 1305, 1494. ISBN 0915678772.
25. http://www.has.vcu.edu/wrs/profiles/SokaGakkai.htm
26. Ikeda, Daisaku. "Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship" (daisakuikeda.org). Teachers College, Columbia University, June 13, 1996
27. Tricycle Magazine Interview: http://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/interview/interview2/2008tricycle.html
28. Choy, Lee Khoon (1995). Japan, between myth and reality. Singapore : World Scientific. ISBN 981-02-1865-6.
29. Lewis, James R. (2003). Legitimating new religions (. ed.). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813533247. "Soka Gakkai ... was not infrequently stereotyped as a brainwashing cult, particularly by anti-cult authors."
30. Fujiwara, Hirotatsu (1970). I Denounce Soka Gakkai. Tokyo: Nisshin Hodo. ISBN 9110135502.
31. cho, Furukawa Toshiaki (2000). Karuto to shite no Sōka Gakkai = Ikeda Daisaku (Shohan. ed.). Tokyo: Daisan Shokan. ISBN 978-4807400171.
32. Yanatori, Mitsuyoshi (1977). Sōka Gakkai (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai.
33. Queen, Christopher S. and Sallie B. King, eds. (1996). Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 365. ISBN 0791428443. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
34. http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/peacebuild/friends/aleksey-n-kosygin.html Aleksey N. Kosygin--Advocate of Peace in the Midst of the Cold War
35. https://books.google.com/books?id=umep6P6dYLAC&dq=Lebron+common&source=gbs_navlinks_s Searching for Spiritual Unity...Can There Be Common Ground? By Robyn E. Lebron
36. http://www.sgiquarterly.org/borders2009Apr-1.html Russia--Cultivating the Common Ground of Peace
37. Shimada, Hiromi: Kōmeitō vs. Sōka Gakkai ("Conflicts between Komeito and Soka Gakkai"). Asahi Shinsho, Tokyo: May 2007. ISBN 978-4-02-273153-1. p. 114. Template:Ja icon
38. Shimada, Hiromi: Kōmeitō vs. Sōka Gakkai, p. 116. Template:Ja icon
39. Mizoguchi, Atsushi: Ikeda Daisaku: Kenryokusha no Kōzō ("Daisaku Ikeda: The structure behind a man with power"). Tokyo: Kōdansha, 2005. ISBN 4-06-256962-0. p. 396 Template:Ja icon
40. Taisekiji: Nichiren Shōshū Nyūmon ("An introduction to Nichiren Shōshū"). Fujinomiya, 2002. p. 332 (chronology) and p. 240 Template:Ja icon
41. ^ Howard W. French, "A Sect's Political Rise Creates Uneasiness in Japan", 14 November 1999. Accessed 19 November 2011.
42. Jacqueline I. Stone, "Nichiren's activist heirs: Sōka Gakkai, Risshō Kōsekai, Nipponzan Myōhōji", in Christopher Queen, et al., eds, Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003). Scan (PDF) available here .
43. Goulah, Jason. 2010. “Daisaku Ikeda’s Environmental Ethics of Humanitarian Competition: A Review of His United Nations Peace and Education Proposals.” Peace Studies Journal 3:1 (April 2010). Central New York Peace Studies Consortium. p3. ISSN: 21510806
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Further reading

• Seager, Richard: Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Sōka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhism. University of California Press, 2006.

External links

• Daisaku Ikeda's website
• SGI President page for Daisaku Ikeda
• Tricycle Magazine Interview, by Clark Strand, Winter 2008
• Lectures around the World

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• 1928 births
• Buddhist pacifists
• Japanese Buddhists
• Japanese pacifists
• Japanese writers
• Living people
• Buddhist writers
• Japanese religious leaders
• Writers from Tokyo
• Members of Sōka Gakkai
• Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Education
• Nichiren Buddhism
• Sōka Gakkai
• Recipients of the Order of Friendship
• Recipients of the Order of the Sun of Peru
• Recipients of the Order of Francisco de Miranda (Venezuela)
• Nichiren Buddhists