President Akiya
President Akiya | |
Born on July 15, 1930 in Tokyo, Einosuke Akiya received a B.A. in French literature from Waseda University. When I first created this page he was serving his fifth five-year term as Soka Gakkai president. He became President of the Sokagakkai in Japan when it's fourth President, Hiroshi Hojo died. He is not a very well known figure outside of Japan, unlike his mentor Daisaku Ikeda. And at this point I doubt he is in the succession to replace him when he dies.
Einosuke Akiya joined the Soka Gakkai in 1951. He has served as chief of the young men's division and youth division and editor-in-chief of the Seikyo Shimbun, the organization's daily newspaper. Mr. Akiya was appointed vice president in 1970 and inaugurated as Soka Gakkai's fifth president in 1981, when Hiroshi Hojo died of natural causes. He also serves as deputy president of Soka Gakkai International. Though he is President of the Soka Gakkai, he is in all ways President Ikeda's follower and disciple. Ikeda may have the title "honorary" but his power is anything but symbolic.
Prior to the dispute with the priests. Akiya and Ikeda both had been elevated to being Chiefs of the Nichiren Shoshu Lay organization known as the Hokkeko. They were rather proud of that position and several lectures that Ikeda gave indicated the proud history of that organization and it's role in supporting the priests and advancing Kosenrufu. When relationships with the priest broke down, that fawning and synchophantic relationship suddenly changed and the rhetoric switched from being supportive to it's current condition.
In 1990-1991 it was he who communicated with the priests directly. Arguing with Nikken's deputy Fujimoto. We read about his speeches first. He tried to maintain the fiction that it was he, and not President Ikeda, who was conducting the verbal disputes with the priests in which the Gakkai maintained that it wasn't distorting Buddhism or teaching that Ikeda was a Buddha. But that it was only protecting itself from a callous attempt to take it over. You can see some of this language reflected in early arguments with Nichiren Shoshu. Ikeda was making speeches at the same time, but these were not translated until a number of years later. For more see split.html,personal.html or temple.html.
Because it was Mr. Akiya who directly addressed Nichiren Shoshu. The Priests in return designated Chief Priest Fujimoto in the stead of Nikken Shonin to deliver replies. Since then he has been active in the occasional "tangles" with Nichiren Shoshu on various issues most notably with regard to the "kawabe" incident in which Reverend Kawabe leaked (or had stolen from him) notes he had taken during the critical period in 1978 when President Ikeda was being forced to resign and a lawsuit was being discussed about the Dai-Gohonzon. See "kawabe.html" or daigoh.html for more information on those controversies. His opinions at that time are found on this page:
- akiyaondg.html.
http://www.en.sokagakkai.or.jp/html1/sg_today1/organization1/akiya1.html
Other sources. The Kawabe memo scandal unfolded as a series of posts to alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren by pro and con members of NST and the Gakkai, along with some commentaries and translations by less interested observers. It was part of the very personal dispute between the Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu.