Bringing World Peace through the ‘Lotus Sutra’

How many people know the name Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985)? Even those unfamiliar with his name have likely come across the large white stupas known as “Peace Pagodas” in cities like London, Vienna, or Delhi, as well as in holy sites in Northern India and even the United States. Today, there are at least eighty peace pagodas around the world, including in Japan. Additionally, those who have participated in anti-war, anti-nuclear weapons, peace, civil rights, racial equality, indigenous rights, and other nonviolence and social justice movements since the Second World War may have seen Japanese monks and nuns dressed in white and yellow robes carrying purple banners with the Japanese characters for “I take refuge in the Lotus Sutra (Namu Myoho Renge Kyo),” or heard the sound of their beating drums and prayer chanting.

This group of monks, or sangha, called Nipponzan Myohoji, was founded by Nichidatsu Fujii in Japan. Often respectfully and affectionately called “Guruji,” Nichidatsu was a monk of Nichiren Buddhism and the leader of Nipponzan Myohoji. He started this religious movement to practice the teachings of Nichiren (1222–1282), the sect’s founding monk, in modern society. Although Nipponzan Myohoji’s clergy have dwindled to about sixty monks and nuns in Japan and abroad, their numbers never exceeded a hundred, even at their peak. Today, Nipponzan Myohoji clerics do not have fixed temples or parishioners, nor do they accumulate wealth or have spouses and families, unlike almost all other Japanese Buddhist clergy. They live a simple life of poverty and strict discipline, cultivating themselves by practicing Nichiren’s teachings. In modern Japan, very few people are aware of this group or Nichidatsu’s name. However, he was a remarkable Buddhist monk who dedicated himself to spreading Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings of nonviolence on a global stage during the 20th century. Constantly on the move, Nichidatsu devoted his life to realizing the pure land of peace in the contemporary world. His nonviolent activism provided spiritual support for many involved in peace movements around the world that transcended religion.

If diplomacy is the effort to foster friendly and peaceful relations between peoples and nations through moral principles and law rather than military force, then Nichidatsu’s efforts toward achieving world peace through the Buddha’s teachings embody the essence of Buddhist diplomacy for all humanity. At the age of 93, in 1978, Nichidatsu was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the government of India. Other notable recipients have included U Thant (1965), Martin Luther King Jr. (1966), Mother Teresa (1969), Nelson Mandela (1979), Aung San Suu Kyi (1993), and Angela Merkel (2009). This prestigious honor underscores how highly Nichidatsu’s achievements were esteemed, both in India and globally.

Nichidatsu was born on August 6, 1885, at the dawn of Japan’s transition from three centuries of national isolation imposed by the Edo Shogunate to an era of modernization and opening up to the world. He was the son of a poor farming family who lived at the foot of Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, and his mother was a devout Buddhist. He entered Usuki Agricultural School in Usuki City, Oita Prefecture, to study modern farming techniques. However, after reading Representative Men of Japan by Uchimura Kanzo (1861–1930), a Christian educator and advocate of modern thought, Nichidatsu encountered the teachings of Nichiren described in the book, and resolved to become a cleric. At that time, Japanese Buddhism was still struggling to reemerge from the movement to “abolish Buddhism and destroy Buddhist images” in the 1870s and find its legitimate place amidst the rising militant nationalism and the formation of state Shintoism. Nichidatsu was ordained at Hoonji, a temple of the Nichiren sect, but began studying the teachings of other Buddhist sects, including Pure Land, Shingon, and Zen. After rigorously undergoing ascetic practices such as waterfall asceticism, burning incense on his body, and fasting, he grounded his religious activities in Nichiren’s teachings. He was particularly inspired by “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land,” which asserts that a country can find peace through true Buddhism. At that time, he began the practice of “beating the drum and declaring the teaching,” a practice of spreading the teachings of the Lotus Sutra through the sound of the beating drum to guide people, as Nichiren did throughout his life.

At that time, he began the practice of “beating the drum and declaring the teaching,” a practice of spreading the teachings of the Lotus Sutra through the sound of the beating drum to guide people, as Nichiren did throughout his life.

During this period, Nichidatsu began his missionary work in China—known at that time as “spreading Buddhism to the continent.” Amidst Japan’s military invasion of northeastern China and the establishment of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, Nichidatsu traveled alone through the Korean peninsula, northern China, and Manchuria, enduring harsh conditions. During this time, he established Nipponzan Myohoji and built humble hermitages as bases for his practice. In 1930, following his mother’s death, Nichidatsu vowed to “spread Buddhism to the Western Heaven,” aiming to return Buddhism to its birthplace in India and propagate it across Asia. He journeyed to India and arrived in Calcutta, where he set up a small hermitage near a cremation ground. After further pilgrimages, he pledged to restore Rajgir, where Buddha stayed for a longer period to teach Buddhism to his disciples and built a practice hall there.

A major turning point in the development of Nichidatsu’s movement occurred during his encounter with Mahatma Gandhi in 1933. During his stay in India, Nichidatsu visited Gandhi at the Wardha Ashram and spent two months there. Although he only had one short official meeting with Gandhi, they formed a close relationship. This encounter profoundly influenced Nichidatsu, who deeply connected with Gandhi’s philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance in the fight for India’s independence. Nichidatsu was drawn to Gandhi’s simple, self-sufficient lifestyle, exemplified by his use of the spinning wheel as a symbol of freedom from the colonial economic control and materialism of Western modernism. He was also struck by how Gandhi, as the spiritual pillar of India’s independence movement, garnered support from all over the world, including the West. These experiences gave Nichidatsu confidence and direction regarding his aspirations.

A particularly memorable moment occurred during their meeting when Nichidatsu beat the hand drum and chanted Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Gandhi joined in, beating his drum and chanting along. From then on, Gandhi became fond of drums and included drum beating and chanting in the daily prayer ceremony at Wardha Ashram. Nichidatsu later wrote that the sound of the drums and their mutual joy created a profound connection in a moment of spiritual celebration through Gyakkusenryo—beating the drum and proclaiming the teaching. This experience gave Nichidatsu a deep recognition of the connection between the Buddha’s teachings of nonviolence and Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. Even today, the Wardha Ashram practices drum beating and chanting in its daily prayer service. Around the same time, while on his pilgrimage in Sri Lanka, Nichidatsu was entrusted with Buddha relics by the monk N. Piyaratna. This act became a catalyst for Nichidatsu’s subsequent practice of distributing relics to political leaders to spread the dharma.

The second major turning point for Nichidatsu came in August 1945. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan’s surrender in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War gave a new direction to Nichidatsu’s postwar activities. The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 coincided with Nichidatsu’s 60th birthday. In Japanese culture, turning 60, known as kanreki, symbolizes the completion of one life cycle and the beginning of another. Returning to his village at Mount Aso for contemplation, Nichidatsu made a significant decision. He viewed the atomic bombings as a sign of humanity’s impending extinction due to technological civilization and equated this with the Buddhist concept of mappo, or the “latter days of the world when Buddhism declines.” In response to the mappo era, Nichidatsu committed to advocating for world peace through Buddha’s teachings, making this the core of Nipponzan Myohoji’s activities.

The central element of Nichidatsu’s new mission was the construction of stupas as symbols of peace, with the first being the Mount Hanaoka Peace Pagoda in Kumamoto City, Japan. Amidst the postwar poverty and chaos, Nichidatsu labored alongside devotees and supporters using pickaxes and hoes to construct the pagoda, completed in 1954. The relics enshrined in the pagoda, carried on an elephant’s back in the inauguration procession, were gifts from Indian Prime Minister Nehru, symbolizing the deep friendship between Nipponzan Myohoji and India. A grand ceremony held to celebrate the pagoda’s completion was attended by intellectuals, politicians, and foreign dignitaries from India, Sri Lanka, the United States, and other countries. The ceremony addressed the void in Japanese people’s hearts left by disillusionment with militarism and the hardships of postwar recovery.

In response to the mappo era, Nichidatsu committed to advocating for world peace through Buddha’s teachings, making this the core of Nipponzan Myohoji’s activities.

The ceremony also symbolically marked Japan’s return to the international community as a “nation of peaceful culture” after the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. Additionally, 1954 was the year that the Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb test irradiated the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryumaru. This incident, considered the third major instance of irradiation following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, highlighted growing global concern over nuclear weapons. As the arms race intensified, the call for peace gained urgency, reflecting a growing worldwide desire for peace. Thus, in conjunction with the Mount Hanaoka Peace Pagoda ceremony that year, Nipponzan Myohoji held its second World Peace Conference (the first was at Wardha Ashram).

Completing the Mount Hanaoka Peace Pagoda marked the third turning point for Nichidatsu, who dedicated the remaining forty years of his life to global peace activities through Buddhism. He tirelessly worked to help start international ecumenical organizations for peace, such as Religions for Peace and the World Peace Council. He also continued to build pagodas across Japan, starting from the cities of Atami and Fukui and the northern island of Hokkaido. His pagoda-building efforts soon extended beyond Japan to South Asia, including India and Sri Lanka, and then to Europe and North America. Until his death at the age of 100, he consistently worked toward world peace. He advocated for nonviolent peace movements and opposed war, especially nuclear weapons, by establishing peace pagodas and participating in anti-war and peace pilgrimages with his disciples and followers.

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© Yoshiko Ashiwa, 2026, Figures of Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.