Editing Soka Gakkai (section)

===Foundation===
{{Main|Tsunesaburō Makiguchi}}
[[File:Tsunesaburo Makiguchi.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Tsunesaburō Makiguchi]], the first President of the Sōka Gakkai]]
In 1928, educators Tsunesaburō Makiguchi and [[Jōsei Toda]] both converted to Nichiren Buddhism. The Soka Gakkai officially traces its foundation to November 1930, when Makiguchi and Toda published the first volume of Makiguchi's magnum opus on educational reform, ''Sōka Kyōikugaku Taikei'' (創価教育学体系, ''The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy'').<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Clarke|editor-first=Peter|title=Encyclopedia of new religious movements|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-45383-7|page=594|edition= 1. publ.}}</ref><ref name=valueCreator>{{cite book|last=Bethel|first=Dayle M.|title=Makiguchi the value creator: revolutionary Japanese educator and founder of Soka Gakkai|year=1994|publisher=Weatherhill|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8348-0318-3|edition= 1st paperback}}</ref>{{rp|49}} The first general meeting of the organization, then under the name ''Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai'' ({{lang|ja|創価教育学会}}, "Value Creating Educational Society"), took place in 1937.<ref>Levi McLaughlin, Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions, Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, {{ISBN|978 90 04 23435 2}}, page 282</ref>
   
The membership eventually came to change from teachers interested in educational reform to people from all walks of life, drawn by the religious elements of Makiguchi's beliefs in [[Nichiren Buddhism]].<ref name=sgi-america>{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=Phillip E.|title=Soka Gakkai in America: accommodation and conversion|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-19-829389-7|edition= Reprinted.|author2=Machacek, David W. }}</ref>{{rp|14}} The group had a focus on proselytization growing from an attendance of 60 people at its first meeting to about 300 at its next meeting in 1940.<ref>Kisala, pp. 141–142</ref>