The Human Revolution

The Human Revolution is Daisaku Ikeda's fictionalized chronicle of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement's rebuilding in the aftermath of the Second World War. First serialized in the Soka Gakkai's Seikyo Shimbun newspaper beginning in 1965 and later collected into English-language volumes by Weatherhill, with a foreword by the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and illustrations by Teikichi Miyoshi, it is narrated by Shin'ichi Yamamoto, a character standing in for Ikeda himself.

The story centers on Josei Toda, the historical second president of Soka Gakkai, who was released from prison on July 3, 1945, after refusing to renounce his beliefs under Japan's wartime government — a stand that had already cost the organization's founder, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, his life in custody the previous year.

The novel follows Toda as he rebuilds the movement from a handful of members into a nationwide lay Buddhist organization grounded in the 13th-century teachings of Nichiren, and trains the young disciple who will one day succeed him.

Its recurring theme — that a change of heart in a single person can, in turn, remake the society around them — gives the book its title; its sequel, The New Human Revolution, continues the story after Toda's death in 1958.