1989
Feb. 25 |
Nichiren
Shoshu makes a request to the Soka Gakkai to raise the pilgrimage fee. |
July 17 |
Nikken
builds a family tomb at a Zen temple, Hakusan-ji in Fukushima and conducts
a commemorative ceremony at the site (breaking one of the Twenty-six Admonitions
of Nikko Shonin). |
1990
March 13 |
Nichiren
Shoshu notifies the Soka Gakkai at a regular communication meeting of an
increase in the gohonzon-conferral fee, toba memorial tablet fee and the
fee for keeping ashes of the deceased. |
July 16 |
Nikken
and some senior priests meet at Taiseki-ji's Tokyo office in Nishikata
to discuss how to oust President Ikeda, i.e., how to execute what was later
called Operation C. This meeting is later called the Nishikata Conference. |
July 17 |
The
Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai communication meeting is held, at which
the Soka Gakkai raises the issue of unseemly conduct on the part of priests
that is
becoming
rampant throughout Nichiren Shoshu in Japan. |
July 18 |
Nikken
and the same priests who met at Nishikata meet again to further discuss
their plot against President Ikeda. Nikken officially names the plan Operation
C. This meeting is later referred to as the Council in the Presence of
the High Priest. |
July 21 |
Soka
Gakkai International President Daisaku Ikeda and Soka Gakkai President
Einosuke Akiya are granted an audience with Nikken. During the audience,
Nikken emotionally reproaches President Akiya, calling him arrogant. He
also makes an intimidating remark to President Ikeda: "I will impeach you." |
Aug. 29 |
Nichiren
Shoshu announces a "Standard of Moral Ethics for Priests and Their Families"
at a nationwide teachers meeting. |
Sept. 2 |
The
Soka Gakkai dedicates a culture festival to Nichiren Shoshu to celebrate
the 700th anniversary of the founding of the head temple, Taiseki-ji. |
Oct. 12-13 |
A
grand ceremony to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the founding of
Taiseki-ji is held with President Ikeda as the committee chairman. |
Nov. 16 |
President
Ikeda gives a speech at the 35th Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting;
an unauthorized recording of which Nichiren Shoshu uses to attack him and
the SokaGakkai. |
Dec. 13 |
Nichijun
Fujimoto, general administrator of Nichiren Shoshu, attempts to hand an
inquiry document raising issues concerning the content of the Nov. 16 speech
to President Ikeda. Fujimoto withdraws the document as Mr. Akiya requests
a dialogue to iron out differences. |
Dec. 16 |
Nichiren
Shoshu, refusing to engage in dialogue with the Soka Gakkai, sends the
inquiry to the Soka Gakkai Headquarters demanding a written reply. |
Dec. 23 |
The
Soka Gakkai responds by sending Nichiren Shoshu a written request for dialogue
including questions of its own including concerns about the accuracy of
the tape transcription. |
Dec. 25 |
Nikken
meets with journalists Isao Dan, Kojun Takahashi and others to discuss
attacking the Soka Gakkai in the media. |
Dec. 27 |
Nichiren
Shoshu holds a special Council session to revise its rules so it can dismiss
President Ikeda from the position of the head of all Nichiren Shoshu lay
societies using the tape of his speech as a pretext. |
1991
Jan. 1 |
The
Soka Gakkai points out a number of errors in the priesthood's transcription
of the tape of President Ikeda's speech at the Nov. 16, 1990, Headquarters
Leaders Meeting. |
Jan. 2 |
Nikken
refuses to grant an audience to President Akiya and General Director Morita
who request a meeting to discuss matters of the disagreement. |
Jan. 6 |
Nikken
lectures on the Sho-Hondo, misinterpreting former high priest Nittatsu's
address on the significance of this structure. |
Jan. 12 |
Nichiren
Shoshu, admitting mistakes it committed in transcribing the tape, withdraws
questions at the heart of its inquiry. The basis of the priesthood's attacks
on the Soka Gakkai and dismissal of President Ikeda hence collapses, but
the priesthood makes no move to reverse its decision or discuss reconciliation. |
March 5 |
Nichiren
Shoshu notifies the Soka Gakkai that lay organizations besides the Soka
Gakkai can be created overseas from now on reversing a long-standing policy
established during Nittatsu's term. This is the beginning of the priesthood's
plan to create direct temple organizations (danto) outside Japan. |
March 30 |
The Soka Gakkai sends Nikken
a second set of questions concerning Nikken's misinterpretation of the
former high priest's address on the significance of the
Sho-Hondo. Nikken does not
respond. |
July 1 |
Nichiren Shoshu abolishes
the Soka Gakkai's traditional pilgrimage system of 40 years and starts
a new pilgrimage system, in which each participant needs to have
documentation from his or
her local temple, thus using access to the Dai-Gohonzon
as an enticement aiming
to increase the number of direct temple members. |
July 21 |
At a nationwide teachers
meeting, Nikken emphasizes that promoting the direct temple movement (i.e.,
urging members to leave the SGI and join the temple) is the official direction
of Nichiren Shoshu. To make his point, Nikken refers to three things: the
revision of the rules of Nichiren Shoshu, the temple's new method of propagating
the Daishonin's Buddhism outside Japan and the new pilgrimage system. |
Sept. 27 |
Nikken's having built a
family tomb at a Zen temple and conducted a ceremony on that occasion becomes
public knowledge. |
Nov. 7 |
Nichiren Shoshu sends the
Soka Gakkai a document titled "Remonstration to the Soka Gakkai to Disband." |
Nov. 28 |
Nichiren Shoshu sends the
Soka Gakkai a document titled "Notification of the
Excommunication of the Soka
Gakkai from Nichiren Shoshu" excommunicating
more than 12 million believers
without any effort to resolve the disagreement through dialogue. |
Dec. 27 |
The Soka Gakkai sends Nichiren
Shoshu a document titled "Seeking the Resignation of Nikken as Nichiren
Shoshu High Priest" signed by 16.25 million people. |
1992
Feb. 2 |
Seven priests, including
Reverend Gen'ei Kudo (former chief priest in Los Angeles), leave Nichiren
Shoshu, forming the Association of Priests for the Reformation of Nichiren
Shoshu. |
March 30 |
A group of young priests
directly confront and question Nikken. With this incident, they leave Nichiren
Shoshu and form the Association of Youthful Priests for the Reformation
of Nichiren Shoshu. |
June 14 |
A third group of priests
leave Nichiren Shoshu to form the Association Concerned About Nichiren
Shoshu and Devoted to Protecting the Law. |
June 17 |
The Soka Shimpo,
the Soka Gakkai youth division newspaper, first publishes an article about
the "Seattle Incident," reporting Mrs. Hiroe Clow's account of Nikken's
run-in with prostitutes and police during a Gohonzon conferral trip to
Seattle in 1960 when he was the Nichiren Shoshu Study Department chief. |
Aug. 11 |
Nichiren Shoshu expels SGI
President Ikeda as a lay believer (his second
excommunication). |
Aug. 28 |
At a nationwide meeting
of priests, Nikken states that he never set foot outside the hotel in Seattle
on the night he is alleged to have had an encounter with prostitutes and
police. |
Sept. 13 |
Mrs. Hiroe Clow sues Nikken
in Los Angeles District Court for defamation of character in conjunction
with the Seattle Incident. Nikken publicly and in print had called her
a liar. The suit is later dismissed on jurisdictional grounds before going
to trial. |
1993
April 27 |
Masatomo Yamazaki, who was
imprisoned for attempting to blackmail the Soka Gakkai, is released on
parole. Yamazaki later approaches Nikken and becomes a Hokkeko member belonging
to the Rikyo-bo lodging temple at the head temple. |
Oct. 2 |
The Soka Gakkai begins to
confer the Gohonzon transcribed by the 26th high priest Nichikan upon its
members. |
Dec. 4 |
Nikken goes to Spain to
open a Nichiren Shoshu office there. |
Dec. 25 |
Nichiren Shoshu sues the
Soka Gakkai in the Tokyo District Court, claiming that the latter's publications'
coverage of the Seattle Incident amounts to defamation of Nikken. The Seattle
Incident trial is born with the Soka Gakkai as the defense. |
1994
Jan. 1 |
Evidence from within Nichiren
Shoshu indicating the existence of Operation C is made public. |
June 1 |
It is revealed that Taiseki-ji
has illegally disposed of many of the deceased's ashes. A number of lawsuits
by individual believers follow, Nichiren Shoshu losing in nearly every
case. |
July 8 |
The District Court in Pusan,
South Korea, fines Nichiren Shoshu priest Hakudo Mori for operating a temple
illegally registered as a nursing home. |
Aug. 21 |
At a Hokkeko leaders meeting,
Nikken says that he will resign if the Seattle Incident is proven true. |
1995
Jan. 20 |
Priests Chodo Ishibashi
and Kan'o Tajima, who were illegally engaged in propagation in Korea, are
fined and deported from the country. |
Feb. 24 |
Police investigate the Korean
Nichiren Shoshu office. |
May 4 |
Myohon-ji temple in Hota,
one of the major time-honored temples, secedes from Nichiren Shoshu. |
June-July |
The Nichiren Shoshu summer
training course pilgrimage is held with fewer than the 50,000-participant
goal. |
June 6 |
The high priest of the Minobu
sect's Homon-ji temple in Ikegami visits Taiseki-ji and is welcomed there
— another violation of Nikko Shonin's Twenty-six Admonitions. |
Aug. 23 |
Nichiren Shoshu announces
its plan to destroy the Grand Reception Hall. |
Aug. 29 |
Priest Hakudo Mori is fined
in Japan for violation of the Foreign Exchange Control Law in connection
with his illegal temple operations in Korea. |
Sept. 29 |
In the Seattle Incident
trial, Nikken makes a radical change in his story, acknowledging that he
did leave his hotel for a drink the night of the alleged incident. |
Oct. 2 & 9 |
Mrs. Hiroe Clow appears
in the Tokyo District Court to testify regarding the Seattle Incident. |
Sept. 18 |
Ronald Sprinkle, a former
Seattle police officer testifies as a defense witness. |
1997
April 18 |
Seven Nichiren Shoshu priests
stationed at the head temple, Taiseki-ji, participate in the omushibarai
ceremony at the Honmon-ji temple of the Minobu sect. This represents another
gross violation of Nikko Shonin's Twenty-six Admonitions. |
Sept. 17 |
Thirty Minobu sect priests
visit Taiseki-ji. |
Sept. 29 |
The judge in the Seattle
Incident trial decides that Nikken must testify, despite his attorneys'
protests.
Nichiren Shoshu changes
its rules again making it easier to expel believers. |
Oct. 6 |
Nikken abruptly fires his
chief attorney. |
Nov. 30 |
Nichiren Shoshu excommunicates
all Soka Gakkai members a second time (third time for President Ikeda). |
Dec. 22 |
Nikken appears in court
and presents his never-before-revealed diary that he alleges to have used
at the time of the Seattle Incident. This "evidence" is intended to indicate
that he was back in his hotel room by the time of the alleged incident.
The defense shows that these diary entries have been altered at a later
time. |
1998
Feb. 2 |
Attorneys for the Soka Gakkai
question Nikken. |
Mar. 26 |
Another major Nichiren Shoshu
pilgrimage is held, but again the goal of 100,000 participants is not met.
The new Grand Reception Hall is opened. |
April 5 |
Nikken secretly transfers
the Dai-Gohonzon from the Grand Main Temple (Sho-Hondo) to the Hoanden. |
May 14 |
A Brazilian court enforces
its decision to oust Nichiren Shoshu priests who had illegally occupied
the main part of Ichijo-ji temple. |
May 18 |
Attorneys for the Soka Gakkai
question Nikken for a second time in the Seattle Incident trial. |
June 23 |
Nikken begins demolition
of the Grand Main Temple (Sho-Hondo). |
July 2 |
Argentina's Bureau of Religion
bans Nichiren Shoshu as a religious corporation after a priest stationed
there, in a sermon and in print, calls Mother Teresa a devil. |
1999
January |
Nichijun Fujimoto, general
administrator of Nichiren Shoshu, and Shinsho Abe, Nikken's son and vice
chief of the General Affairs Bureau, begin to tour Japan (through March
31) to put pressure on local priests who are not showing good results in
terms of membership participation and donations. |
Feb. 20 |
Nichiren Shoshu discloses
its plan to collect from its members $50 million per year for the next
three years toward 2002. |
April 29 |
Ho'on-ji temple in Chiba
secedes from Nichiren Shoshu. |
July 7 |
The "Kawabe Memo" becomes
public. It records Nikken's past statements indicating his belief that
the Dai-Gohonzon is a forgery. |
Aug. 20 |
Zencho-ji temple in Hiroshima
secedes from Nichiren Shoshu. |
Sept. 9 |
Daien-ji temple in Kanagawa
secedes from Nichiren Shoshu. |