Daisaku Ikeda - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

Ikeda is a prolific writer, peace activist, educator, and interpreter of Nichiren Buddhism. His interests include art, philosophy, photography, and music. He has signed the Earth Charter. He has traveled to more than 50 countries to hold discussions with political, cultural, and educational figures, as well as to teach, support, and encourage SGI practitioners.

Daisaku Ikeda and Kaneko Ikeda have dedicated their lives to the advancement of mankind and the promotion of peace through the improvement of individual lives. They are powerful advocates of social change and goodwill ambassadors for all of humanity. The international community has recognized and honored their continuing efforts to advance social justice based on universal values of equality and dignity. They are truly world class citizens whose efforts on behalf of many people, especially those struggling for human rights, should be recognized.

— Hon. Madeleine Z. Bordallo of Guam: Tuesday, May 1, 2007, Congressional Record: Volume 153-Part 8, Recognizing Daisaku and Kaneko Ikeda for Their International Achievements in The House of Representatives

Topics he has addressed include the transformative value of religion, the universality of life, social responsibility, and sustainable progress and development.

World peace is not something that can be realized simply by politicians signing treaties, or by business leaders creating economic cooperation. True and lasting peace will be realized only by forging bonds of trust between people at the deepest level, in the depths of their very lives.

— Daisaku Ikeda, Advancing Peace: Overview, Peacebuilder

As a mentor of SGI, Ikeda has founded several institutions, such as the Sōka University, Sōka schools, the International Committee of Artists for Peace, the Min-On Concert Association, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (TFAM), the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP), and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research.

It remains my heartfelt hope that this exhibit may provide a moment of introspection for its viewers, a moment for us to reaffirm the importance of our rights as human beings and the value of life itself.

— Daisaku Ikeda, An Exhibition of Art and Hope, SGI Quarterly

In addition, he has guided Sōka Gakkai's support of, and involvement in the New Komeito Party (Kōmeitō),a Japanese political party which, as of 2007, is part of a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party. Ikeda has also initiated a wide range of grassroots exchange programs, and delivered speeches at a number of institutions of higher learning around the world, including Harvard University, the Institut de France, Beijing University, and Moscow State University. Gandhi, King, Ikeda exhibition showcases the peace activism of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Ikeda. Another exhibition is Dialogue with Nature showcasing Ikeda's photographs. He has also sponsored the documentary film about the environment, A Quiet Revolution. In 2005, he was awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for "promoting Gandhian values outside India".

In 1996, he also signed an agreement with the Hebrew University, and he was scheduled to give lectures at Columbia University and Denver University. He has had more than forty dialogues with and the representatives of different religious traditions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), as well as of the civilizations of East and West, and prominent thinkers of our time.

Ikeda states that he shares his honors with SGI members, since they have paid for them, and saying that they are proof of the outstanding lives that ordinary people around the world are living, based on the practice of Nichiren Buddhism. He also acknowledges that these honorary degrees honour the greatness of his mentor Jōsei Toda, as well as Toda's mentor Tsunesaburō Makiguchi.

For his humanitarian endeavors in a range of fields, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the United Nations Peace Award, the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award, National Order of the Southern Cross of the Republic of Brazil, the United States Congressional Award, the Honorary Cross of Science and the Arts from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Medal of the Grand Officer of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture, the Grand Officer award from the President of the Italian Republic and the World Poet Laureateship from the World Poetry Society, and The Order of Friendship from Russia. Every year, on 26 January, since 1983, Ikeda presents a peace proposal to the United Nations.

Ikeda is author of numerous books, and has held dialogues on peace, education, and culture with scholars and world leaders. Most notable are his dialogues, such as Choose Life: A Dialogue (English edition, Oxford University Press, 1976), in which Ikeda and historian Arnold J. Toynbee discuss "humanity's predicament in all its aspects." More recently, in Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs, and Actions Can Shape a Sustainable World (Middleway Press, 2003), futurist Hazel Henderson and Ikeda "explore the rise of 'grassroots globalists,' ordinary citizens all over the world who are taking responsibility to build a more peaceful, harmonious and sustainable future."

He is also the recipient of many honorary doctorates, including the United Nations Peace Award (1983); Kenya Oral Literature Award (1986, Kenya); 1986 Chinese Peace and Friendship Trophy, the International Tolerance Award of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (1993, U.S.A.); Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award (1993, U.S.A.); Tagore Peace Award (1997, India); the Albert Einstein Peace Award, and the Global Excellence Award, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (2002, U.S.A.). In 2009 the cultural historian and scholar of Goethe Manfred Osten, together with his wife Uten Osten, presented him with a Goethe Medal on behalf of the Weimar Goethe Institute. He is also an honorary member of the Club of Rome.

Ikeda's many children's books have been animated into anime.