The Resignation of President Ikeda 1
from his position as third President of the Sokagakkai in Japan took many American Members by surprise. This resignation involved two high priests of Nichiren Shoshu, Nittatsu Shonin, and since Nittatsu died during the controversy, Nikken Shonin. When he resigned he took responsibility for the purported "deviations" of the Gakkai and made formal statements that he would support the priests and obey their "guidances" (see his apology.html).At the time President Ikeda admitted an "excess of enthusiasm" on the part of himself and his leutenants and that had "departed from the doctrines of Nichiren Shoshu". Indeed we all thought that it took tremendous courage for him to admit that he had made mistakes and that this was proof that our organization wasn't deifying him and that those who had been doing so were functioning out of line. Unfortunately what was going on was a classic instance of Japanese power politics, and Ikeda wasn't really sorry about anything and was simply giving in because he knew he wouldn't win in a outright battle. He claimed later it was to "protect the members." Both groups seemed to have reconciled differences, but we find out later, that both had made a strategic decision to put off a final confrontation. See split for more of what happened almost 12 years later.
Subsequently we were all taught that it was unseemly to refer to anyone besides the Daishonin (and the Hp's) as "Master"(sensei) or teacher, and that the Kechimyaku of the Law was separate from the Kechimyaku of faith and could only be learned through the lineage of high Priests. For what President Ikeda says about this incident in his essay
"Stormy April 24th" (and my opinions) follow the link. For more about the underlying doctrines visit temple.html or kechimyaku.html He was succeeded by Hiroshi Hojo.
- For the rest of the story follow these links:
- timeline of the split
- personal.html the dispute in 1990's became very personal as it seems that everyone was trying to settle scores.