SŌka Gakkai
SŌKA GAKKAI is a large religious organization that rapidly increased its strength after World War II. Official membership figures in December 2003 included approximately 8,210,000 households in Japan and 1,502,000 individuals in other countries. Makiguchi Tsunesaburo (1871–1944), the founder of Sōka Gakkai, was a primary school teacher who sought to establish an educational movement based on a new educational method. In 1928 Makiguchi became a follower of an exclusive subsect of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, which promoted the merger of his educational and religious movements. In 1930 Makiguchi and Toda Jōsei (1900–1958), his chief disciple, published Sōka Kyoikugaku Taikei (The system of value-creating pedagogy). By 1941 the number of sympathizers had increased to approximately two thousand; at this time the activities of the Sōka Kyoiku Gakkai were inseparable from the activities of lay groups belonging to the Nichiren Shōshū sect. The movement was disbanded in 1943 by the government, but in 1945 it resumed activities under a new name: Sōka Gakkai. The decade of the 1930s was a period of consolidation; 1945 marked the resumption of previous activities; and the 1950s and 1960s were decades of explosive growth.
Makiguchi Tsunesaburo, while serving as a primary school teacher and principal, sought a type of education that would lead his pupils to voluntarily make efforts to develop their abilities and live a better life.
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