| 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. |
______________________________________________
Source:
Confirming
Our Path of Faith: Temple Issue Handbook, SGI-USA Temple Issue Committee
(Santa Monica, CA: SGI-USA {1999})