Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 47

facilitate social change it is necessary to develop a way of being in the world
that creates value. The daily morning and evening chanting of daimoku and
the study of Nichiren Buddhism is advocated as the practice for such self-
development. Chanting, whether individually or in groups, for long periods of
time (such as 10,000 daimoku a day usually taking an hour), at a fast pace,
losing the

to make it Nam-my - ho-renge-ky - , became
the Buddhist practice emphasised in Soka Gakkai. Makiguchi instigated this
kind of practice after he took faith in Nichiren Sh - sh - in 1928.
There is no record of how Nichiren chanted, but it is known that Tientai
chanted about 10,000 daimoku a day, of course in the Chinese pronunciation
of his time. When Soka Gakkai arrived on the scene, the Nichiren Sh - sh -
priesthood tended to chant for

' u ' between the two ' m ' s '

five-to-ten minutes to the beat of a drum at a
much slower pace clearly pronouncing each syllable of Namu-my - ho-renge-
ky - , similar to other Nichiren sects. There was a practice of Ushitora gongy - ,
gongy - conducted at midnight, where a prolonged daimoku (hiki-daimoku)
lasting as long as two minutes was performed. With the increasing presence of
lay members from Soka Gakkai, the speed of daimoku changed, also at such
midnight gongy - gatherings. Changing the format from chanting slowly, to
the beat of a drum, changed the ceremonial feel (girei) that the priestly
chanting had entailed. This resulted in a new kind of Buddhist practice
emerging. The fast, rhythmic pace with which Soka Gakkai members chanted
also made for a di

'

erent understanding of Nichiren Buddhism. Fighting

'

daimoku (tatakao daimoku) in which individuals chanted with strong resolve

to reveal their

' '

Buddhahood and to achieve speci c goals laid the foundation

for both a di erent understanding of the e cacy of chanting to Nichiren ' s

honzon, as well as for a di erent purpose rooted in how they could apply the

ideals of Buddhism to their daily life. Soka Gakkai institutionalised a format
of Buddhist practice where chanting with the speci

c purpose and resolve to

achieve one s personal goals were linked to engaging in the activities to spread

what Soka Gakkai saw as the ideals of Nichiren Buddhism. That is, prosely-
tising, or the movement of k - sen-rufu to spread the ideals of the Lotus Sutra,
was seen as the foundation for creating a wider spiritual and cultural change
in society. This more liberal interpretation of k - sen-rufu, which literally
means to widely spread and declare [the teachings of Nichiren] was at times
at odds with Nichiren Sh - sh - , and it was this

'

' liberalism ' that essentially led

to the priesthoods ' excommunication of the lay organisation in 1991, which I

discuss below. 12
In other ways, Soka Gakkai followed the basic doctrinal standpoint of
Nichiren Sh - sh - , which, as mentioned above, di ered from other Nichiren

sects in its emphasis on the role of Nichiren as the Buddha of the Latter Day
of the Law, his honzon as the exclusive object of worship, and the exclusive
practice of chanting the daimoku. In other words, Soka Gakkai took what
had become the marginal position of Nikk - . The other

five senior priests were
also in possession of various Nichiren honzons but did not regard this as the
only or primary object of worship. For instance, commonly found in Nichiren