The first & second presidents of Soka Gakkai

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Soka Gakkai's first president, was born in Kashiwazaki, a small village in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on June 6, 1871. Adopted by the Makiguchi family, he moved to Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, at the age of 14. Working his way through school, he graduated from Sapporo Normal School (today's Hokkaido University of Education). First employed as an assistant teacher at a primary school affiliated with his alma mater, he later taught high school and served as a dormitory superintendent. After moving to Tokyo, he served as principal in six primary schools, from 1913 to 1932.

During those years, he devoted much consideration to the relationship between life and education, developing his theories on the creation of value, the happiness of the individual, and the prosperity of society at large.

Typical of his work is his first book, Jinsei Chirigaku (The Geography of Human Life), published in 1903. In it, he developed unique and progressive ideas on the relationship between people's lives and their geographic location. For over a period of five years from 1930, he also published the 4-volume Soka Kyoikugaku Taikei (The System of Value-creation Pedagogy). Based on his long career as an educator, this series of books sets forth his astute observations and far-thinking proposals for reforming the Japanese educational system.

An example of his proposals was the creation of an educational system comprising a partnership of school, home and community, each of which had responsibility for a specific part of the educational task. In this system, a child would spend half day in school and the other half in apprenticeships and other types of work activities at home and in the community befitting the nature and needs of the child. Mr. Makiguchi felt that implementing his proposed system would change bored, apathetic learners into eager, self-directed students.

The theory and practice of value-creating education, which aim to instill in an individual an appreciation for the highest values, have attracted the attention of educators outside Japan as well. The Soka Kyoikugaku Taikei, has been translated now into English, Portuguese, French and Vietnamese.

In 1928, Mr. Makiguchi converted to Nichiren Shoshu--at the time, the only Buddhist sect which had faithfully embraced the teaching of Nichiren. Mr. Makiguchi's encounter with the highest school of Buddhist thought took his life onto an even deeper and broader dimension, resulting in the establishment of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creation Education Society), the predecessor to today's Soka Gakkai. It can be said that Mr. Makiguchi created and developed a grassroots movement as the foundation of a lasting peace, an objective he perceived at the very heart of Nichiren's Buddhism.

During World War Two, he staunchly opposed Japan's military government because it sought to impose the doctrine of State Shinto through strict control of religions and thoughts inimical to its war effort. Moreover, he was particularly severe in his remonstration with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood for cowardly compromise of its faith in face of governmental pressure.

In 1943, he was arrested and imprisoned as a "thought criminal." Yet, in spite of being subjected to harsh interrogations, he never retreated from his beliefs; indeed, the 72-year-old former principal continued to assert the value of freedom of religion, the most fundamental of all human rights. On November 18, 1944, the anniversary of the founding of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, he died in prison.

More detailed information is available here.

 

Josei Toda

Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, was born on February 11, 1900, in Ishikawa Prefecture, and shortly thereafter moved to Atsuta village in Hokkaido, where he spent his childhood. Like his predecessor Mr. Makiguchi, he worked his way through school, became a school teacher, and then, at the age of 20, moved to Tokyo. There, he learned of Mr. Makiguchi and his unique teaching methodology and sought to learn from him. At 23, he began managing a private school called Jishugakkan, where he put his mentor's educational theories into practice. During that period he published a textbook, Suirishiki Shido Sanjutsu (A Deductive Guide to Arithmetic), which sold over a million copies.

In 1928, Mr. Toda converted to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism together with his mentor, Mr. Makiguchi. Two years later in 1930, he co-founded the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creation Education Society) with Mr. Makiguchi, who became its first president. Mr. Toda assumed the post of general director and, in support of his mentor, dedicated himself to the reform of education and religion. For more than two years of incarceration for "subversive" thoughts - war resistance and religious preference - he resisted state coercion. Studying the Lotus Sutra in his prison cell, he came to realize that "Buddhahood is life itself." ( "Buddha" is not some transcendental or supreme being but is a condition that all people equally possess - it is the ability to perceive the essence or ultimate reality of life .) That life-sustaining moment of insight, cultivated in the bleakest of circumstances, became the symbolic root of the rapid post-war development of Soka Gakkai.

After his release from prison on July 3, 1945, Mr. Toda found that the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai had been shattered. Devastation of war lingered in the total ruin of the land and in the demoralized condition of the Japanese people. In the midst of a society in utter turmoil, he renamed the organization Soka Gakkai and undertook the reconstruction of the organization and the morale of society. By May 3, 1951, when he was inaugurated as Soka Gakkai's second president, the membership was less than 3,000 households. Within seven years, the society was transformed into a nationwide religious movement, with a membership of over 750,000 households. Josei Toda died on April 2, 1958.

More detailed information is available here.