Parents and Children
January 2009
Banner photo: © Frans Lemmens/Getty Images
Brazil--The Blossoming of Culture
Austregésilo de Athayde and Daisaku Ikeda meet at Rio de Janeiro airport, February 1993
[© Seikyo Shimbun]
In February 1993, Daisaku Ikeda made his fourth visit to Brazil. Waiting for him at Rio de Janeiro's airport was the 94-year-old Austregésilo de Athayde, president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and a well-known human rights champion who had been a participant in the drafting of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When a member of the welcoming party expressed concern that Athayde had arrived two hours before the flight was due to land, Athayde replied that he had been waiting 94 years to meet Ikeda and that an extra hour or two were inconsequential.
Athayde's eagerness to meet Ikeda reflects the extent to which the SGI leader's efforts in the promotion of peace, education and culture have found resonance in Brazilian society, as well as the significance of SGI-Brazil's various contributions. Ikeda has to date received hundreds of commendations from Brazil, including the nation's highest award, the National Order of the Southern Cross, and 13 honorary doctorates and professorships.
These facts, however, stand in dramatic contrast to the way in which the SGI movement was regarded by the Brazilian power structure during the early phase of its presence in Brazil.
Ikeda's first trip to Brazil was a brief visit in 1960, a few months after his inauguration as third president of the Soka Gakkai at the age of 32. There were already a handful of Soka Gakkai members in Brazil, a consequence of a significant Japanese immigrant population in the country. It was in Brazil at this time that the first Soka Gakkai chapter outside of Japan was formed (the Soka Gakkai International would not be established for another 15 years).
BSGI members perform at the June 2008 centennial celebrations of Japanese immigration to Brazil
[© Seikyo Shimbun]
Ikeda's next trip to Brazil was in 1966. Two years previously a repressive military government had taken power in the country, driving many cultural and intellectual figures into exile. The purpose of Ikeda's trip was to encourage the local Soka Gakkai members and attend a culture festival they had organized. Throughout the trip, Ikeda and his party were kept under constant, overt surveillance by the Brazilian secret police, who also maintained a strong presence at the organization's gatherings. In the media there appeared a number of articles denouncing the organization as a threat to Brazilian society, claiming it was a dangerous political group with what was at times said to be a far right, and at other times a far left, agenda. Ikeda took every opportunity to dispel these misconceptions, meeting and talking with journalists, even explaining to the police officers assigned to follow him the organization's philosophy of peace through individual transformation and social contribution.
When Ikeda next attempted to visit Brazil, in 1974, he was forced to give up his plans when it proved impossible to receive a visa. The membership of the Soka Gakkai in Brazil had by now grown to several thousand. Through intermediaries, Ikeda encouraged them to find ways to demonstrate the SGI's objectives of building peace and promoting social cohesion, by reaching out to the broader society and winning trust.
Developing Exchange
The Paulo Moura Quintet in Japan, 1979
[Min-On]
In 1979, the Min-On Concert Association, established by Ikeda in 1963 to promote cultural exchange, invited the Paulo Moura Quintet and Sambacana for a 30-performance tour of Japan that was seen by more than 40,000 people. This was the first of more than 20 tours by Brazilian artists through the auspices of Min-On, which have included well-known Brazilian stars such as Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Chico César, as well as folkloric performances.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the political climate in Brazil began to shift under the leadership of the new president, João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, former head of the Brazilian secret service, who promoted a program of democratization. In 1982, he addressed a letter to Ikeda in which he invited the SGI leader to visit Brazil.
BSGI members perform at the June 2008 centennial celebrations of Japanese immigration to Brazil
[© Seikyo Shimbun]
In 1984, Ikeda returned to Brazil. During the trip he met and held discussions with the Brazilian president. He also had dialogues with various cabinet ministers, university rectors and the heads of volunteer organizations, donating books to the University of Brasília and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
In the late 1980s, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (TFAM), established by Ikeda as a channel for the promotion of cultural and artistic exchange, initiated a series of programs with the Museum of Arts of São Paulo (MASP), one of Latin America's most renowned art institutions.
In February 1990, the exhibition "Eternal Treasures of Japan" was held in São Paulo. This extensive display of traditional Japanese art was the first of its kind in Latin America and attracted a record number of visitors to the museum.
Later that year, Ikeda met in Tokyo with the São Paulo museum's director, Fábio Magalhães, a former activist for democratization and a well-known cultural figure in Brazil. Magalhães had become familiar with the SGI president's writings during the preparation for the exhibition and, impressed by them, began to introduce them to other prominent Brazilian thinkers and cultural figures. One of these, who also became a strong proponent of Ikeda's ideas in Brazil, was the pianist and composer Amaral Vieira; over the years Vieira has dedicated a number of large-scale compositions to Ikeda.
"Treasures of Japanese Art," on loan from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, at the National Museum of the Republic in Brasília, 2008
[© Seikyo Shimbun]
Exchanges between the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and MASP continued with the 1995 "Masterpieces from the Museum of Art of São Paulo" exhibition in Tokyo, featuring 60 works from the museum's acclaimed collection of European Impressionist works.
In 1992, the SGI's "Coexistence and Hope: Development and Environment" exhibition was an official side-event of the Rio Earth Summit and seen by over 200,000 people. SGI-Brazil also later hosted the large-scale exhibition "Toward the Century of Humanity--Human Rights in Today's World" in a number of Brazilian cities.
A New Beginning
In February 1993, Ikeda made his fourth and most recent visit to Brazil--an occasion that demonstrated the impact that his efforts to promote friendship and exchange had had over the previous two decades, as well as the trust and respect with which the SGI movement in Brazil has come to be regarded. Ikeda was awarded honorary degrees from the University of São Paulo and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as medals of honor from São Paulo State and Paraná State and honorary citizenships from a number of local municipalities. He also delivered an address at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, which named him a nonresident member and awarded him the Machado de Assis Medal, its highest accolade.
Mr. Ikeda talks with young members of BSGI in Rio de Janeiro, 1993
[© Seikyo Shimbun]
Since then Ikeda has continued to meet and talk with a diverse range of representatives of Brazilian society; individuals such as poet Thiago de Mello, philosopher Ronaldo Mourão and Rector Lygia Pupatto of Londrina State University. He published a dialogue on human rights with Austregésilo de Athayde and has established the Amazon Environmental Studies and Project Center in Manaus, supporting research into rainforest preservation. Soka University, also founded by Ikeda, has developed exchange programs with the Federal University of Paraná and the University of São Paulo.
All these accomplishments have been supported by the vibrant community efforts of the members of SGI-Brazil (BSGI), a burgeoning organization that draws on and reflects the remarkable diversity and energy of the Brazilian people. One striking example of its initiatives is a government-accredited adult literacy program, which has enabled 6,000 people to achieve literacy.
LATEST ISSUE
Developing Creativity