Global InformationSoka Gakkai information
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. (September 2023) |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2024) |
創価学会 | |
 Soka Gakkai flag | |
| Formation | November 18, 1930 |
|---|---|
| Founders |
|
| Type | New religious movement |
| Headquarters | 〒160-8583, Tokyo Shinjuku-Ku, Shinanomachi (信濃町) |
Membership | 11 million according to SG / between 3 and 4 million according to academics |
President | Minoru Harada |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai (創価教育学会) |
| Part of a series on |
| Buddhism in Japan |
|---|
 |
|
Soka Gakkai (Japanese: 創価学会, Hepburn: Sōka Gakkai, "Value-Creation Society") is a Japanese Buddhist religious movement based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese priest Nichiren as taught by its first three presidents Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, Jōsei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. It is the largest of the Japanese new religions and claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhist groups. The organization bases its teachings on Nichiren's interpretation of the Lotus Sutra and places chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the center of devotional practice. The organization promotes its goals as supporting "peace, culture, and education".[1]
The movement was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930, and held its inaugural meeting in 1937.[2] It was disbanded during the Second World War when much of the leadership was imprisoned for violations of the 1925 Peace Preservation Law and charges of lèse-majesté. After the war, it expanded to a claimed total of 750,000 households in 1958 through explosive recruitment, held to be unprecedented in Japanese media.[3][4][5] Further expansion was led by its former third president Daisaku Ikeda. According to its own account, has 11 million members in 192 countries and territories around the world. However, this figure is not supported by any independent count. According to the work of American academic Levi McLaughlin[6], membership in Japan is closer to 2-3% of the country's population, or between 2.4 and 4 million people.
Moving the group toward mainstream acceptance, the organization is still viewed with suspicion in Japan and has found itself embroiled in public controversies, especially in the first three decades following World War II.[3][7][8][9][10][11][12] From 1952 to 1991, it was affiliated with the Nichiren Shōshū Buddhist sect.[13] Komeito, a political party closely aligned with Soka Gakkai and founded by elements of its lay membership, entered a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democratic Party in 1999 and is currently a junior partner in government. Soka Gakkai has been described as a cult.[14][15][16]: 13
- ^ "At a Glance". Soka Global (SGI). n.d. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism), University of Hawaii Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-8248-2771-7, page 454.
- ^ a b Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin, eds. (2010). Religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 2656–2659. ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6.
- ^ Kisala, Robert (2004). "Soka Gakkai: Searching for the Mainstream". In Lewis, James R.; Aagaard Petersen, Jesper (eds.). Controversial New Religions. Oxford University Press. pp. 139–152.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
introalternativewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Levi McLaughlin, Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution : The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, Hawaii, University of Hawai‘i Press, 31 décembre 2018
- ^ Phillip E. Hammond and David W. Machacek, "Soka Gakkai International" in J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann (eds.), Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 2658. "Daisaku Ikeda (b. 1928), Soka Gakkai's charismatic third president, led the international growth of the movement. Although Ikeda and his successor, Einosuke Akiya, have gone to great lengths to improve the movement's public image, suspicion remains. Soka Gakkai's political involvement through the organ of the Komeito, a political party founded by the Soka Gakkai, and the near godlike reverence that members have for President Ikeda have tended to perpetuate public distrust. Although it has been subjected to a generalized suspicion toward Eastern religious movements in the United States, Europe, and South America, the movement's history outside of Japan has been tranquil by comparison to its Japanese history."
- ^ Wellman, James K. Jr.; Lombardi, Clark B., eds. (2012-08-16). Religion and human security: a global perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-19-982775-6. "When I conducted a survey of 235 Doshisha University students a few years ago asking their opinions about the Gakkai and how much they knew about its peace education programs, over 80 percent responded that they had a negative image of the movement and about 60 percent thought that its 'peace movement' is little more than promotional propaganda. The few respondents with a positive image were either Soka Gakkai members, were related members, or were friends of members."
- ^ Seagar, Richard (2006). Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, the Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism. University of California Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-52024577-8.
Since its founding in the 1930s, the SG has repeatedly found itself at the center of controversies, some linked to major struggles over the future of Japan, others to intense internal religious debates that erupted into public view. Over the course of its history, however, it has also grown into a large, politically active, and very well-established network of institutions, whose membership represents something on the order of a tenth of the Japanese population. One result is that there is a fractured view of the movement in Japan. On one hand, it is seen as a highly articulated, politically and socially engaged movement with an expressed message of human empowerment and global peace. On the other, it has been charged with an array of nefarious activities that range from fellow traveling with Communists and sedition to aspiring to world domination.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Lewis217was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Beasley, W. G., ed. (1977). Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 190–196. ISBN 978-0-520-03495-2.
Hunt, Arnold D. (1975). Japan's Militant Buddhism: A Survey of the Soka Gakkai Movement. Salisbury East, S. Aust.: Salisbury College of Advanced Education. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-0-909383-06-0.
Kitagawa, Joseph M. (1990). Religion in Japanese history ([Reprint]. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0-231-02838-7. - ^ Cite error: The named reference
brannenMilitantwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Hurst, Jane (2000). Macachek and Wilson (ed.). A Buddhist Reformation In the 20th Century. Oxford University Press. p. 70. ISBN 0-19-924039-6.
- ^ McElhinney, David (2022-01-11). "Op-ed: Frankly, Cult Thinking is Everywhere in Japan". Tokyo Weekender. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
Called a cult by some, Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, based on the teachings of 13th-century priest Nichiren, claims to have 8.27-million-member households in Japan....
- ^ Sakai, Noboru (2017-08-27). "The Roots of the Contemporary Image of Japanese Cults". electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
Note 1: ...Regardless of its reputation since the end of World War II (both positive and negative), Soka Gakkai began to be called a cult by some people after the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the clear appearance of Aum Supreme Truth, so at least Soka Gakkai itself is not the root image of cults in Japan independently, though it may also, even partly, be the case that the early stage of Soka Gakkai gave some sort of conceptual image of a cult. ...
- ^ Introvigne, Massimo (November–December 2019). "Soka Gakkai in Italy: Success and Controversies" (PDF). The Journal of CESNUR. 3 (6): 3–17. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
Although annoying for the members, who are insulted by their opponents through the social media and should occasionally face hostile press reports and TV shows, anti-cult criticism of Soka Gakkai in Italy has been so far largely irrelevant.