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Break in Relations Between the SGI and Nichiren Shoshu

Just as in other religions with strong lay organizations, conflict and tension existed between the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the SGI. A defining event occurred in November 1991, when the high priest of Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated the entire lay association of the SGI, effectively banning the 12 million SGI members from participation in religious activities sponsored by the sect. The clergy also refused to allow new members of the SGI to receive the Gohonzon, which is central to the religious practice instituted by Nichiren. [28]

Although the causes for this separation are complex, and the context colored by Japanese history as well as by traditions within the Nichiren Shoshu sect, the conflict stems from the priesthood’s claim that the lay organization must submit to the absolute authority of the high priest and, further, to the superiority of the priesthood as interpreter of Nichiren’s teachings. The SGI took the position that the priesthood had lost contact with the basic egalitarian spirit of Nichiren’s teaching. This, the SGI claimed, had led away from Nichiren’s injunction to work compassionately for the happiness of all humankind, toward an insular doctrine of priestly heritage that would secure an authoritarian, clerical control over the religious practice and activities of all lay believers—including their right to share their faith with others.

In his book on the development of the SGI in Britain, sociologist Bryan Wilson offers this brief commentary on the situation:

The priesthood was a conservative body, small, secluded, and with horizons narrowly circumscribed by the centuries of Japanese insulation from the external world. Soka Gakkai International was a movement of revitalization, adapted to modern conditions, pursuing from the outset a policy of expansive growth, and quickly acquiring an international clientele and orientation. The priesthood was characteristically authoritarian, status conscious, and hierarchic; the lay organization was populist, egalitarian, and unwilling to concede the sort of status differences, which were endemic in conceptions of priesthood. [29]

The SGI maintains that Nichiren recognized no distinction in capacity or faith between priests and lay persons, and that his fundamental intent was to encourage all people who sincerely seek to follow his teaching. As a result, there seems to be a permanent rupture between the SGI and the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood—they operate as fully independent entities. [30] Given this reality, the SGI independently began to issue the Gohonzon to its members in late 1993. The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood insists that the SGI has no right to disseminate or interpret Nichiren Buddhism or provide the means for individuals to take up their practice of Buddhism, while the SGI continues its worldwide efforts to inform people about this faith and to promote mutual respect and understanding among individuals and communities.