Nikken Abe place of birth Sumida-ku
Early life
Born Nobuo (信夫), Abe was the first son of Hōun Abe, then the chief priest of Jōzen-ji in Sumida, Tokyo, and later 60th Nichiren Shoshu High Priest Nichikai. His mother, Myoshuni, was a female priest. He entered the priesthood in 1928 by tonsure, taking the Buddhist name Shinno (信雄).He graduated from Rissho University in 1943, training as a priest. After his return from duty with the Japanese Imperial Navy,  he served as chief priest of three temples:
Hongyōji (Sumida ward, Tokyo, 1947)
Heianji (Kyoto, 1963) where his mother was a resident priest
Jōsenji (Sumida ward, Tokyo)He was appointed head of the school's Kyōgakubu (office of doctrinal orthodoxy, often rendered Taisekiji Study Department) in 1961. In this position, he was one of the two Nichiren Shoshu priests who traveled overseas to conduct the first initiation rites (Gojukai) for new believers outside Japan in 1961, for which the 66th high priest gave him the name "Etsuyo" (越洋: "he who crosses the seas"). Abe was named Nichiren Shoshu Sōkan (the school's second-highest ranking priest) in early 1979.
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