Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 56

kaidan, which again stopped with the establishment of Komeito in 1964.
Nishiyama sees the seeking of Diet (the Japanese legislature) approval for the
construction of a kokuritsu kaidan as Toda cation for why Soka

Gakkai members entered the Upper House in the 1950s.
Given that Toda was so serious about promoting Nichiren Buddhism,
enough to have the strength to stand up to a military regime when he thought
they went against that philosophy, he must have considered a variety of
options as to how to interpret the honmon no kaidan described by Nichiren as
a goal for future disciples. He may even have considered the option of aiming
for Nichiren Sh - sh - as the state religion as a way to achieve k - sen rufu
(interview with Soka Gakkai study dept., Saito 23 June 2011). However, there
is no evidence of such a direction, so even if he considered it, he must have
decided against it. Yet Toda did use the term kokuritsu kaidan and did indi-
cate this to be a kind of political goal in the early 1950s. Given Makiguchi

' s justi

' s

and Toda is own remonstrations, it is unlikely, however, that Toda would have

thought of the meaning of a kokuritsu kaidan in nationalistic terms. It is more
likely that he used the term as part of the common expression among the
priesthood to which Soka Gakkai belonged. Moreover, considering the many
other and much wider-reaching political objectives (discussed below) that
Toda talked about (which are not considered in Nishiyama

'

s article), the issue
of the kaidan for him seems more to have been a religious symbol of k - sen
rufu rather than a political end in itself. In his inaugural speech in 1951, it is
clear that his aim was not to make Nichiren Buddhism the state religion.
Even Nishiyama points out that when Toda talked about k - sen rufu, it did
not mean a time when everyone converted to Nichiren Buddhism, neither did
it mean when the emperor converted to Nichiren Buddhism.
It seems more evident that Toda must have had di

'

culty with accepting the
idea of a national high sanctuary, which was a common demand from within
Nichiren Sh - sh - , although again its understanding of such a building has to
be distinguished from the extreme position of the Japan Pillar Society. At the
same time, Nichiren Sh - sh - clearly looked at the writings of Nichiren in more
abstract terms, as they never displayed the same evangelical zeal as the lay
movement. Toda, being as serious as he was about realising what he saw as
Nichiren t

of all people, probably could not ignore that he had to somehow tackle this
issue of the establishment of the high sanctuary. So his question must have been,
what did the

' s aim of spreading the philosophy of the Lotus Sutra for the bene

' imperial edicts and o cial [shogun] proclamation ' (WND-2,

986 87) mean in an age where democracy had become the new form for

governance, something he himself highly praised, with the emperor only a
symbol of the country?

-

s call for - butsumy - g -

Komeito - Soka Gakkai ' s answer to Nichiren '

'

Makiguchi s insistence on not accepting the Shinto talisman to pray for Japan

to win the war was a thorn in the side not only of the authorities, but also of