Soka Gakkai International

Soka Gakkai was founded in Japan in 1930 by an educator named Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. Soon after its founding, it became associated with Nichiren Shoshu, a sect of Nichiren Buddhism. In the early 1990s, all formal ties between Soka Gakkai International and Nichiren Shoshu were severed, although the two organizations continue to follow essentially the same teachings and forms of practice. Today Soka Gakkai International has some ten million members around the world, including an estimated 330,000 in the United States.