Daisaku Ikeda was born the fifth son of Korean seaweed farmers at ?ta, Tokyo. He had four older brothers, who fought in World War II, two younger brothers, and a sister. As a child, he suffered from poor health and later tuberculosis, and doctors predicted that he wouldn't survive beyond the age of 30. Ikeda's family endured the hardships of the war. In his youth, he lost his eldest brother Kiichi Ikeda (1916—1945) to World War II, which developed in him a strong opposition to war. In August 1947, he learned of Nichiren Buddhism through Josei Toda...a Nichiren Buddhist, educator, peace activist, and then-President of the Soka Gakkai. In 1948, he quit night school to work for Toda's publishing business. In return, Toda taught Ikeda literature, history, chemistry, physics, political science, economics, law, mathematics, and Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhist philosophy. In his writings, Ikeda talks about this time, from 1948 till Toda's death in 1958, as Golden Years, when he attended Toda University. As a disciple of Toda, Ikeda took on Toda's dream and mission to spread the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism and its principles of developing a peaceful world through the spread of the True Teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Toda died in 1958, and Ikeda has been President of the Soka Gakkai since 1960.

From its beginnings in the 1930s, the Soka Gakkai was a lay organization supporting the laity in their practice of Nichiren Sh?sh? Buddhism. After World War II, as Nichiren Buddhism began to spread throughout the world, Soka Gakkai responded by developing an international outreach program, the SGI (Soka Gakkai International). Ikeda took a lead role in this development and became President of SGI upon its founding in 1975. In 1979, Ikeda was forced to resign as president of Soka Gakkai to take responsibility for Soka Gakkai's deviation from Nichiren doctrines and the accompanying conflict with the priesthood and was succeeded by Hiroshi Hojo. He was excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu on August 11, 1992. Even so, he remained president of SGI, and the position of Soka Gakkai Honorary President, which he still maintains, was created for him.

As of April 2008, he had received 252 honorary doctorates. He has used the principles of Nichiren Buddhism throughout his own life, and in his role as president of SGI, he acts to support the membership in a number of ways, including providing support and encouragement through his writings and lectures, by striving to promote a dialogue on Nichiren Buddhist principles as they apply to today's global challenges with many of today's world leaders. As such, the SGI membership views him as a great role model for how to apply this practice in their own lives. He is referred to by some members as their "mentor in life" (jinsei no shish?, ), and is frequently referred to in the third person as sensei (, "our teacher" or "master").

Nichiren Buddhism is a form of Buddhism based on the final teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, in what is called the Lotus Sutra. According to Nichiren Buddhists' interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, one may awaken one's Buddha Nature through a practice of chanting the phrase Nam myoho renge kyo to develop one's sense of compassion, wisdom, and clarity of mind and through the development of a sense of the interconnectedness of all life...the "oneness of life and environment", or esho funi...and the ways in which one's thoughts, actions, and deeds...karma...affect one and one's environment throughout the past, present, and future.

Like his predecessors in Soka Gakkai, Josei Toda and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, and indeed Nichiren Daishonin, Ikeda has striven to live according to these and other Buddhist principles and to encourage others to do the same. Through the study of their teachings, the practice of chanting, and the practice of active involvement in the world at large, S?ka Gakkai members think they are able to develop the innate Buddha Nature within, leading to a happier, more fulfilling life for themselves and others. Ikeda has had dialogues with many people including Arnold J. Toynbee, Linus Pauling, Wangari Maathai, Marianne Pearl, M.S.Swaminathan, Roberto Baggio, Coretta Scott King, Joseph Rotblat, John Kenneth Galbraith, David Norton, Betty Williams , Ba Jin, and Rosa Parks.

He lives in Tokyo with his wife, Kaneko Ikeda (1932-), whom he married on May 3, 1952. He had three sons, Hiromasa Ikeda (1953-), Shirohisa Ikeda (1955—1984), and Takahiro Ikeda (1958-).

The British journalist and political commentator Polly Toynbee was invited to meet Ikeda in 1984, as Ikeda "was hoping to tighten the public connection between himself and Polly Toynbee's famous grandfather, Arnold Toynbee, the prophet of the rise of the East." Toynbee described him as "a short, round man with slicked down hair, wearing a sharp Western suit"; they talked from "throne-like" chairs in "an enormous room" reached via "corridors of bowing girls dressed in white". Toynbee wrote "I have met many powerful men — prime ministers, leaders of all kinds — but I have never in my life met anyone who exudes such an aura of absolute power as Mr. Ikeda."

Ikeda is a prolific writer, poet, peace activist, educator, and interpreter of Nichiren Buddhism. His interests include art, philosophy, photography, and music. He has signed the Earth Charter and is a noteworthy environmentalist. He has travelled to more than 60 countries to hold discussions with many political, cultural, and educational figures, as well as to teach, support, and encourage practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism living in these countries. Topics he has addressed include the transformative value of religion, the universality of life, social responsibility, and sustainable progress and development.

As a mentor of SGI, he has founded several institutions, such as the Soka schools (from kindergarten through university level), International Committee of Artists for Peace (www.ICAPeace.org), the Min-On Concert Association, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Institute of Oriental Science and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research to promote educational, cultural, and artistic activities and to conduct exchanges with like groups and institutions on a global scale. In addition, he has guided the Soka Gakkai's support of, and involvement in Komeito,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.

Ikeda states that he share his honors with SGI members, 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 honor the greatness of his mentor Josei Toda, as well as Toda's mentor Tsunesaburo 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 the founder of Soka University, the Soka School System, the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, the Toda Institute for Global Peace Policy and Research, and the Institute of Oriental Philosophy.

Ikeda is also author of numerous books and has held dialogs on peace, education, and culture with numerous 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 the most honorary doctorates awarded to a single individual, 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.). He is also an honorary member of the Club of Rome.

Ikeda's many children's books have been animated into cartoons in Japan.

Honorary Doctorates and Professorships

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• Chinese University of Hong Kong
• University of Sydney
• Northeast Normal University
• University of Delaware
• St. Petersburg State University
• University of Hong Kong
• University of Macau
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In 1995, Daisaku Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai were critically reported on in Time magazine. In 1999, The New York Times did a piece on the uneasy rise of the New Komeito party in Japan funded largely by Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai.

Soka Gakkai is criticized for having too much of its focus on President Ikeda, not respecting the Buddhist idea of following the ideal and not the man.

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