Tanaka Chigaku

Tanaka Chigaku
田中智學
Tanaka Chigaku around 1890
Born	Tada Tomonosuke (1861-12-14)December 14, 1861 Edo, Japan
Died	November 17, 1939(1939-11-17) (aged 77) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese

Tanaka Chigaku (田中智學, December 14, 1861 – November 17, 1939) was a Japanese Buddhist scholar and preacher of Nichiren Buddhism, orator, writer and ultranationalist propagandist in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He is considered to be the father of Nichirenism, the fiercely ultranationalistic blend of Nichiren Buddhism and Japanese Nationalism espoused by such figures as Nissho Inoue, Kanji Ishiwara and Ikki Kita. Notably, however, the children's writer, poet, and rural activist Kenji Miyazawa also idolized Tanaka, and both Miyazawa and Ishiwara joined his flagship organization, the Kokuchūkai, in 1920.