Zadankai (座談会, discussion meetings) are community-based conventicles which serve as the grassroots activity of Soka Gakkai members.
The format of the meetings Makiguchi led centered on participants sharing personal stories about how their practice of Nichiren Buddhism improved their daily lives.
[1] The tradition of holding zadankai was continued by the second Soka Gakkai president Jōsei Toda after World War II.
[15] Zadankai differ from other religious traditions also by allowing participants to address the challenges to happiness encountered in daily life situations.
[23] Carter points out that the primary congregational emphasis rests not on any temple, church, monastery, mosque or synagogue but on small group gatherings in the homes of practitioners, particularly because it is a lay-based movement.