Dehn, Sōka Gakkai

The Sōka Gakkai (value-creation society, SG) is a Buddhist lay organisation which was founded in 1937 in Tokyo by the teacher and educationist Makiguchi Tsunesaburo under the name Sōka Kyoiku Gakkai. It belongs to the branch of Japanese Buddhism which stems from the monk Nichiren of 13th century and has the Lotus Sutra in the centre of its studies and activities. Conflicting with the military government the leadership of SKG was imprisoned in 1943, and Makiguchi died in prison. His close friend and disciple Toda Josei followed him in leadership of the organization and rebuilt SG after the war, skipping the word kyoiku (education) from the name. Under his leadership until his death in 1958 SG reached a membership of nearly 800.000. As of now there are around 8 Mio. members in Japan and around 15 Mio. worldwide. From 1952 to 1991, SG was linked with Nichiren Shoshu and its centre at Taiseki-ji. Nichiren Shoshu also held the alleged original of the Gohonzon, a mandala designed by Nichiren containing the daimoku namu myōhō renge kyō. The third president (from 1960) Ikeda Daisaku, from 1975 the first president of the SG-International, is higly revered. Allied with SG is the political party Komeito, and part of the social and economic activities are a publishing house, a daily newspaper, two universities and a music corporation (Min-On).