Background
Chigaku Tanaka was born in 1861 in Edo and lost both parents at an early age.
田中智學
Chigaku Tanaka was born in 1861 in Edo and lost both parents at an early age.
In 1871 he entered a school called Iidaka Gakurin in the province of Shimosa and later transferred to Nichirenshu Daigakurin in Tokyo, studying under Arai Nissatsu. He withdrew from school in 1876 due to illness and, while convalescing in Yokohama, devoted himself to the study of Nichiren’s writings.
In 1880 he founded a religious society in Yokohama called Rengekai. In 1884 he moved his activities to Tokyo, changing the name of his organization to Rissho Ankokukai. He gained great notoriety in 1901 when he announced in Simmon no ishin the slogan, “The Lotus Sutra is a sword,” strongly emphasizing the militaristic nature of the type of Nichiren Buddhism that he favored. This attitude continued to characterize his thinking throughout the remainder of his life and allied him with the militaristic and expansionist elements of the time.
In 1914 he renamed the Rissho Ankokukai the Kokuchukai, expanding its social activities in a number of areas.
In 1870 he became a disciple of Nisshin of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism.
He became increasingly nationalistic in his thinking. Though pre¬viously a member of the clergy, he renounced his clerical status in 1879 and thereafter worked as a lay Buddhist leader to spread the teachings of Nichiren as he interpreted them.