BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 267as Buddhist guardian deities and other kami, Niwano practiced name divina-
tion-they advised the patient or the immediate family to chant the Lotus
Siitra, dedicating the merit to the ancestor responsible for the disease. With
his/her stock of merit thus improved, the ancestor would then be in a posi-
tion to bless the patient and so effect a cure. To maintain health, however, the
patient also had to undergo a change of heart, for one's laxity in having ig-
nored the needs of one's ancestors in the first place was symptomatic of a
deeper attitudinal problem. If this problem went unchecked, one would be
subject to further disease. Thus the patient was told to attend counseling ses-
sions, in which he/ she was trained to use the teachings of the Lotus Sutra to
bring about a change of heart and a happier life within the entire family cir-
cle. These counseling sessions-called hoza (Dharma-sittings)-seem to ac-
count for the strong sense of group identity that kept the movement intact
during the difficult years of World War II.
During the occupation years, Kosei-kai-as it calls itself for short-be-
came the fastest growing of the new religions. After the occupation it was
overtaken by Soka Gakkai, but its growth rate has continued to be dramatic.
At the end of the war it claimed 1,000 households. By 1960, it claimed
399,000; in 1980, 1,640,000. At present it claims 6 million individual mem-
bers worldwide. The turning point for the organization came in the late 1950s
and early 1960s. Prior to Nagamuna's death in 1957, the leaders of the group
undertook fasts and cold-water austerities to develop shamanic powers similar
to hers. The contrary messages that these various shamans received, however,
threatened to split the group on at least one occasion. After 1957, Niwano
decided that the group had entered a new period in its history that would no
longer depend on shamanism. The sole source of authority from then on
would be the Eternal Buddha revealed in the Lotus Sutra. At about this time,
the concerns of the membership began to shift, in response to Japan's increas-
ing affluence. More and more of the members, in addition to seeking relief
from specific worldly problems, began seeking a niore meaningful life in gen-
eral. As a result, the organization began to place less emphasis on physical heal-
ing, and more on the "sei" part of its name~ the perfection of the personality.
In this, it followed a pattern common to all the new religions that have sur-
vived their first generation.
The Kosei-kai approach to personal perfection is best revealed in Niwano's
writings on the subject. According to him, the personality is composed of two
parts: the observed self and the seeing self. The observed self is the ordinary
sense of separate identity that, if left to its own resources, would simply act
out its selfish instincts. However, each person also has a seeing self, composed
of introspection and conscience, which can contemplate the actions of the
observed self and redirect the personality to higher ends. This seeing self is
identical with the Buddha-nature present in all beings. It can be actualized
only through one's relationships in society, due to the dual dynamic taught by
the Buddhist doctrine of the interdependence of all things. To begin with,
one activates the seeing self through appreciation of one's debts to others by