biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1906–99)
|
| biography:
| Founder of the Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist movement, born in Saganuma, Niigata Prefecture, N Japan. Born into a farming family, he had various jobs before he married and settled in Tokyo. He became a member of the religious organization called Reiyukai, with its emphasis on the Lotus Sutra, an important scripture of Mahayana Buddhism. He later broke with Reiyukai and, with colleague Mrs Myoko Naganuma, went on to found Rissho Kosei-Kai (‘establishing the teaching of the true Dharma (Lotus Sutra)’). The organization is dedicated to promoting interreligious co-operation and is now the world's largest Buddhist lay group, with over five million adherents. He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1979. |
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