한국SGI 성장의 차원에서 본 부산의 포교와 발전-SGI 전개와 문화회관의 형성을 중심으로-

Abstract

Korea SGI stands for Korea Soka Gakkai International, a new religion that started its activities when the Japanese Soka Gakkai (創価学会) was introduced into Korea. The Soka Gakkai is one of the representative religious groups of new religions of Japanese origin, enjoying a fairly stable religious influence compared to other new religions. Established modeling the organizational structure of the Soka Gakkai, Korea SGI operates with its own sub-organizations and has ‘Districts’ [方面] centered around a large city as well as ‘Zones’ [圈] in the sub-administrative regions of the city. As of August 2022, Korean SGI is known to have 46 Districts and 146 Zones across the country. The fact that a city has well-established Districts and Zones means that the city has a large number of members and well-established Culture Centers for them. Culture Centers are religious facilities of SGI Korea, where its members can engage in basic religious activities, thus serving as the most active hubs for the believers. Currently, the Districts, Zones, and Culture Centers are most well established in the cities of Busan and Daegu, as well as in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. All these regions have in common that the members of the Soka Gakkai formed small organizations from the time the Soka Gakkai was introduced into Korea, and that makes them considerably significant in the propagation history of Korea SGI in Korea. This is why this study examines the introduction and development of Korea SGI in Busan as well as the current state of its propagation there. In the past, Busan served as the Busan-Gyeongsang General Headquarters of Korea SGI, which was later divided into three General Headquarters, and then started to expand its influence while carrying out its regional activities. These three General Headquarters later developed into ‘Zones,’ which underwent the process of being divided into smaller ‘Zones’ several times over time and played a key role in shaping the’Districts’ and ‘Zones’ in present-day Busan. Of course, Busan witnessed the development of Culture Centers along the way, establishing 13 Culture Centers. However, the believers in the Yeongdo Zone could not keep their own Culture Center recently and are renting out the Culture Center instead, which means that Busan currently operates and manages 12 Culture Centers. Nevertheless, Busan still boasts of the second most Districts, Zones, and Culture Centers after Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, and this proves that there are many active believers in Busan with a stable religious influence. With this in mind, this study attempts to examine the organizational system of Korea SGI, the development and current status of its Culture Centers, and the spread of SGI Korea in Busan from the time the Soka Gakkai was introduced to the present day. It is hopefully expected that an understanding of what the process of the propagation and development of Korea SGI looked like in Busan, which played a major role in stabilizing Korea SGI today, will be of great help to understanding the development process and the current status of its propagation in Korea.