Hokke-ko's Summer Training Course Ends with Failure

Hokke-ko's summer training course (ten sessions over a two-month period) ended with far fewer participants and each session faced inclement weather.

The goal for participants was five thousand for each session, but no session reached that goal. Most of the sessions made about 60% of the goal; the highest was 80% and lowest (the third session) was 40% of the goal. Altogether, "the total number of participants was about 35,000" (according to Feiku #744).

Jison Nomura, chief priest of Seiryo-ji temple in Chiba prefecture, gave a pep talk to the Hokke-ko members, telling them "you should participate two or even three times." In particular, the elderly Hokke-ko members were encouraged to attend more than once. Taking this into consideration, the actual number of individual participants was probably no more than 25,000.

Looking at the local level, Saitama area shows a phenomenal decrease in Hokke-ko members. The number of applicants for the first summer session was 80 less than originally anticipated. In total, the number of participants from Saitama area was just 2,700, considerably less than the already reduced number of 3,300 participants last year.