Daisaku Ikeda, Honorary Doctor of KNUTE
General Information
DAISAKU
IKEDA
Japanese thinker,
philosopher, writer, poet and educator
HONORARY DOCTOR OF KNUTE
(2002)
Daisaku Ikeda was born in Tokyo, on January 2, 1928 in the family
of algae merchant. His generation is the so-called "war children".
Four of his elder brothers were sent to the front, one of them
didn't return, and Ikeda Daisaku and other students worked on
military production. Violent and fanatical nationalism of
militarism of contemporary Japanese society, the horrors of night
bombing aroused indignation of the young heart against the war,
senseless tragedies and atrocities. Family poverty and ill health
of Daisaku Ikeda just reinforced the spiritual confusion of the boy
who looked for the answers to his questions in the books. Young
Ikeda loved to read Whitman, Tolstoy, Goethe. He is familiar with
the written works of Gogol. In the postwar time Daisaku Ikeda
graduated from the Department of Political Science and Economics at
Tai Sei Gakuyin (today - Tokyo Fuji University).
In 1947, at the age of 19 Daisaku Ikeda met Josei Tod - the second
president of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, who became his
teacher and under whose guidance he studied philosophy, politics,
literature, art, economics, law, chemistry and other sciences. This
meeting led Ikeda Buddhist to Buddhist faith and to joining the
Soka Gakkai. Buddhist philosophy, in Ikeda's opinion, is a peaceful
teaching based on love and respect to the Man.
In 1960, Ikeda became the third president of Soka Gakkai. Since
1979 he is its honorary president. For 19 years of his running this
organisation Buddhist movement was intensively globally developing.
In 1975 Daisaku Ikeda founded the international Buddhist
organization Sokka Gakkai International, SGI, and became the
president of the peacekeeping secular society, whose members amount
now to more than 10 million people, representatives of more than
190 countries and regions.
Daisaku Ikeda is the founder of several institutions that are
designed to spread the ideas of humanism and mercy. Among them -
the education system comprising kindergartens, elementary,
secondary and high schools, universities, Education Foundation
named after Makiguchi; in the field of culture - Concert
Association "Min On", Museum of Fine Arts "Fuji" in Tokyo in the
prefecture Sudzuoka; in the field of science - Research Institute
of Oriental Philosophy, International Research Center on peace
issues named after Josei Tod, Boston Research Center for the XXI
Century and others.
Daisaku Ikeda is the author of many philosophical and literary
works that reflect a wide range of his varied interests - this is
poetry, scholarly works, works on policy issues and civilization.
Noteworthy philosophical works are: "The revolution in the human
soul" (in 12 volumes), "Life - a mystery, treasure" "My Buddha",
and more than forty dialogues of Ikeda 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.
Daisaku Ikeda has more than 230 degrees and titles of honorary
doctorate and honorary professor, that were awarded to him by
universities all over the world.
Daisaku Ikeda enjoys photography.
Paying tribute to his merits for mankind Scientific Council of
KNUTE assigned the title "Honorary Doctor of KNUTE" to Daisaku
Ikeda in 2002.
In 2003 the delegation of the Kyiv National University of Trade and
Economics, headed by the rector A. Mazaraki, visited the Soka
Gakkai and handed solemnly to Daisaku Ikeda the Diploma of
"Honorary Doctor of KNUTE", university certificate "Respect decent
", and also on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science of
Ukraine the award of "An honored worker of education in
Ukraine".


