Sho Hondo

The Sho Hondo was the main temple building of the head temple of the Nichiren Shoshu school of Buddhism at Taiseki-ji, Fujinomiya, Japan from 1972 until its demolition in 1998. It was built to house the Dai-Gohonzon, an inscribed wood block which is the focal point of the practice of Nichiren Buddhism both within Nichiren Shoshu and within Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a lay Buddhist movement which was affiliated to Nichiren Shoshu until 1991. The Sho Hondo was regarded as an important work of post-war Japanese architecture. It was notable for its vast unsupported roof span.

The Sho Hondo was funded largely by the personal donations of 8 million Soka Gakkai members. (Soka Gakkai is the Japanese lay organisation out of which the umbrella organisation known as SGI evolved).

The reason given for its demolition was that it was structurally unsound. However many architects and engineers have disputed this. Some attribute the destruction to the then high priest, Nikken Abe's personal hatred for the president of SGI, Daisaku Ikeda. [Washington Post Sunday, June 14, 1998, as republished at http://members.aol.com/watchbuddh/washpost.htm – This article is no longer appears to be available from washingtonpost.com. However it is referenced in Jane Hurst, A Buddhist Reformation, in Global Citizens: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World eds. David W. Machacek, Bryan R. Wilson, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.70] Many architects and others saw this as a lamentable act of destruction. Terence Riley, chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, wrote that the planned demolition would be a "regrettable finale" to a century that has "witnessed so much loss." [Washington Post Sunday, June 14, 1998, as republished at http://members.aol.com/watchbuddh/washpost.htm – This article is no longer appears to be available from washingtonpost.com. However it is referenced in Jane Hurst, A Buddhist Reformation, in Global Citizens: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World eds. David W. Machacek, Bryan R. Wilson, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.70]

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