Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is best known as the founder of Soka Gakkai, the association of lay members of the Nichiren Shoshu sect of Buddhism that has grown to number more than ten million followers throughout the world, including some 200,000 Nichiren Shoshu of America adherents in the United States. But Makiguchi had spent a lifetime as an educator, developing his "value creating" educationai philosophy, before he founded Soka Gakkai. In the 1930s he proposed educational reforms that were fully as (...) revolutionary as those advanced by his American counterpart John Dewey. He is one of Japan's most significant yet perhaps least recognized educators. Makiguchi said that Japan's educational system was haphazard, unplanned, fragmented, and useless. Convinced that the pursuit and creation of values are the ultimate purpose of life, he proposed a "value creating" educational system. Defining the three greatest values in life as goodness, beauty, and gain, Makiguchi held that through education people should increase their ability to create values and thus find happiness. (shrink)

This article focuses on Daisaku Ikeda's (1928– ) philosophy and practice of intercultural dialogue—what I call ‘value‐creative dialogue’—as a new current in interculturalism and educational philosophy and theory. I use excerpts from Ikeda's writings to consider two aspects of his approach to dialogue. First, I locate his approach philosophically in Buddhism; in the examples of dialogue modeled by Ikeda's mentor, Josei Toda (1900–1958), and by Toda's mentor, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944); and in Makiguchi's theory of value creation (soka) and (...) value‐creating pedagogy. Second, I consider the multiple and value‐creative levels Ikeda's dialogues play. I conclude with implications of value‐creative dialogue in education in general and bilingual‐bicultural education in particular. (shrink)