{"id":1668,"date":"2025-11-02T20:11:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:11:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:11:44","slug":"nichirens-teachings-in-modern-contexts-tanaka-chigaku-and-soka-gakkais-misapplications-of-nichirenism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2025\/11\/nichirens-teachings-in-modern-contexts-tanaka-chigaku-and-soka-gakkais-misapplications-of-nichirenism\/","title":{"rendered":"Nichiren’s Teachings in Modern Contexts – Tanaka Chigaku and S\u014dka Gakkai’s Misapplications of Nichirenism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The teachings of the thirteenth-century Buddhist thinker Nichiren inspired numerous twentieth-century intellectuals, who drew on his steadfast belief in the all-encompassing <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i> to advance their contemporary agendas. However, their application of Nichiren\u2019s teachings to modern contexts led to reworkings of their core principles and revealed inconsistencies with the Buddhist Dharma, which stemmed from Nichiren\u2019s disloyal relationship with the Buddhist Dharma and that which he preached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nichiren believed that he was born in the \u2018Final Dharma age\u2019 prophesized by the Buddha, which meant that only the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i> could lead to Buddhahood.1<\/a><\/sup> He regarded Japan as an ideal place to be born, as it had \u2018an affinity for the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i>\u2019, and sought to extend the teachings of it \u2018worldwide\u2019.2<\/a><\/sup> However, in Nichiren\u2019s time, Japanese expansion was unrealistic as they posed no \u2018threat to other countries\u2019.3<\/a><\/sup> Moreover, Christine Naylor argues that many of his teachings opposed Buddhist principles, since Nichiren understood that \u2018false teachings\u2019 were leading the world to disaster, and could not \u2018promise peace to his followers in this life\u2019.4<\/a><\/sup> Because of this opposition, he believed Japan and the world’s reluctance to follow solely the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i> had resulted in this ruin. Furthermore, Nichiren\u2019s contradictions undoubtedly led to more difficulty in modern interpretations. For example, he initially believed the Japanese kamis protected the \u2018devotees of the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i>\u2019, but then \u2018threaten[ed] them with punishment\u2019 once he convinced himself they had betrayed him.5<\/a><\/sup> Finally, adding to interpretation confusion, Naylor contends that the misunderstandings partially derive from Nichiren not following \u2018the first of \u015a\u0101kyamuni\u2019s precepts, which forbids the taking of life\u2019, as he \u2018sanctioned both secular and religious wars\u2019.6<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Tanaka Chigaku\u2019s utilization of Nichirenism for imperialist Japan reworked its core principles as they were not intended for the modern context in which Tanaka employed them. As Japan struggled \u2018to assume a place among the world\u2019s powers\u2019 during the Meiji era, Tanaka looked to Nichiren\u2019s argument for Japan to globally spread the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i> as a means for expansion.7<\/a><\/sup> Jacqueline Stone argues that Tanaka was possibly the \u2018first person in modern Nichiren Buddhist history\u2019 to believe that the worldwide spread of Nichirenism and the <\/span>kaidan<\/span><\/i> was truly achievable.8<\/a><\/sup> Nichiren, confined to the contexts of his time, had not even thought such a thing to be genuinely realistic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The major contrasts between Nichiren and Tanaka become apparent when considering the relationships of their principles with the imperial family. Where Nichiren disrespected both Amaterasu and Hachiman, a \u2018tantamount irreverence to the emperor\u2019, Tanaka connected Nichirenism with Shinto nationalism, making him \u2018indissolubly linked to the modern imperial state.9<\/a><\/sup> Nichiren’s principles opposed the imperial family, whereas Tanaka’s supported them. Moreover, Naylor argues that Tanaka read Nichiren\u2019s passages out of context, which led him to believe Nichiren was \u2018an ardent believer of the imperial system\u2019, citing the confusion.10<\/a><\/sup> The fact that Nichiren\u2019s principles support Japanese imperialism \u2018only if torn out of context\u2019 supports the notion that Tanaka\u2019s \u2018loyalty was to Japan and the emperor, not to Buddhism\u2019.11<\/a><\/sup> Ultimately, the \u2018tangled strands of [Nichiren\u2019s] personality and ideas\u2019 made his writings difficult to interpret and even more difficult to appropriately apply to modern contexts.12<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

S\u014dka Gakkai, a lay Nichiren Buddhist organization, in the postwar era interpreted Nichiren\u2019s concept of <\/span>kaidan<\/span><\/i> not from an imperial perspective, but instead from a modern perspective within the limitations of the postwar parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Its second president, Toda J\u014dsei, believed it was the organization\u2019s responsibility to prevent the \u2018sufferings epitomized by the recent war\u2019 from repeating through the supposed peace preached by Nichiren.13<\/a><\/sup> Similar to Tanaka, the third president, Ikeda Daisaku, sought a true nationwide acceptance of Nichirenism and the <\/span>Lotus S\u016btra<\/span><\/i>; he believed this could be achieved if two-thirds of the country supported S\u014dka Gakkai.14<\/a><\/sup> However, despite these efforts, its core message of peace contradicts Nichiren\u2019s teachings, as seen earlier in this post. Thus, both the imperialist and militaristic interpretations by Tanaka, and the peaceful interpretations by S\u014dka Gakkai, ultimately fail to understand Nichiren\u2019s teachings, as they are nearly impossible to apply to modern contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

  1. Jacqueline I. Stone, \u2018By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree\u2019, in Steven Heinen and Charles S. Prebish (eds), Buddhism in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient Tradition<\/i> (Oxford, 2003), p. 194. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. <\/span>Christina Naylor, \u2018Nichiren, Imperialism, and the Peace Movement\u2019, <\/span>Japanese Journal of Religious Studies<\/span><\/i>, 18: 1 (March 1991), p. <\/span>67. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Ibid<\/em>., p. 66. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Ibid.<\/em>, p. 70. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Ibid<\/em>., pp. 61-62. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. Ibid<\/em>., pp. 70-71. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  7. <\/span>Stone, \u2018By Imperial Edict\u2019, pp. <\/span>198-199. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  8. Ibid<\/em>., p. 200. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  9. Naylor, \u2018Nichiren, Imperialism\u2019, p. 63. Stone, \u2018By Imperial Edict\u2019, p. 203. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  10. Naylor, \u2018Nichiren, Imperialism\u2019, pp. 64-65 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  11. Ibid<\/em>., pp. 73, 60 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  12. Ibid<\/em>., p. 56 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  13. <\/span>Stone, \u2018By Imperial Edict\u2019, p. <\/span>205 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  14. Ibid<\/em>., p. 211 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The teachings of the thirteenth-century Buddhist thinker Nichiren inspired numerous twentieth-century intellectuals, who drew on his steadfast belief in the all-encompassing Lotus S\u016btra to advance their contemporary agendas. However, their application of Nichiren\u2019s teachings to modern contexts led to reworkings of their core principles and revealed inconsistencies with the Buddhist Dharma, which stemmed from Nichiren\u2019s … Continue reading “Nichiren’s Teachings in Modern Contexts – Tanaka Chigaku and S\u014dka Gakkai’s Misapplications of Nichirenism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,25,154,177,153],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-20th-century","tag-japan","tag-nichiren","tag-soka-gakkai","tag-tanaka-chigaku"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1672,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}