page_title: Taiseki-ji
section_title: Shōhondō
hierarchical_section_title: Taiseki-ji / Demolished buildings / Shōhondō
caption_attribution_description: English: Kuon no hi Shohondo Taisekiji-Temple, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, Japan 日本語: 静岡県富士宮市日蓮正宗大石寺にかつて存在した正本堂の敷地内にあったモニュメント「久遠之灯」
context_page_description: Tahō Fuji Dainichirenge-zan Taiseki-ji; more commonly just Sōhonzan Taiseki-ji, informally known as Head Temple Taiseki-ji is the administrative center of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. It is located in the foothills of Mount Fuji in Kamijo, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
  Taiseki-ji was founded in 1290 by Nikkō Shōnin, one of Nichiren's immediate disciples, on a land parcel donated by the believer, Nanjo Shichiro Jiro Taira-no Tokimitsu, commonly known as Nanjo Tokimitsu.
  The temple is the home of the Dai Gohonzon, Nichiren Shoshu's object of worship, which draws pilgrim believers from various countries. The temple's vast open grounds are also open to the public for sightseeing, though its religious buildings are restricted to non-believers. Accordingly, adherents of the Soka Gakkai are not permitted entry to the Head Temple buildings.
context_section_description: The Shōhondō (正 本 堂 True Main Hall) was a building at Taiseki-ji, which opened in October 1972 and was subsequently demolished in 1998. Daisaku Ikeda, who emphasized the building of monuments to the success of the movement, made the request to build the new structure which became the Shohondo. As explained by professor Daniel A. Métraux, the Soka Gakkai placed particular importance on the building of the Shohondo, based on interpretations of doctrine not shared by the Nichiren Shoshu sect as a whole, and therefore controversy over its status arose at its construction. 
  The Shohondo was inaugurated by the Soka Gakkai who claimed it as the "True High Sanctuary", Kaidan, which was a title disputed by conservative groups within the sect including the Myoshinko (now known as Kenshōkai) lay organisation, and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood.  In Nichiren Shoshu doctrine that title was reserved for a future temple to be built at the base of Mt. Fuji on the completion of Kosen Rufu, when the Japanese nation would convert to Nichiren’s Buddhism. Professor Métraux explains that the Soka Gakkai was reinterpreting doctrine and maintained that they could consider the Shohondo as the "True High Sanctuary", Kaidan, about which Nichiren wrote, because through the Soka Gakkai Nichiren’s philosophy was spread through Japan and was positively impacting people. The importance of the Shohondo was, therefore, a highly contentious matter dividing the Soka Gakkai and other factions within the faith. 
  High Priest Nittatsu Hosoi, clarified that the Shōhondō was not the True High Sanctuary about which Nichiren wrote, though directed the Shōhondō as a temporary home for the Dai-Gohonzon, the permanent home of the Dai-Gohonzon would be the future True High Sanctuary.
  The construction of the Shōhondō was funded largely by donations from lay believers of Nichiren Shoshu. In 1968, approximately 8 million Soka Gakkai adherents contributed money to the construction.  An estimated grand total of ¥35,536,000,000 was raised:
  ¥ 35,064,300,000.00 came from the Sōka Gakkai lay organization.
  ¥ 313,820,000.00 from the Hokkekō lay organization
  ¥ 157,870,000.00 from Nichiren Shoshu priests and their families.
  
  The building was demolished in 1998, the official reason given by Nichiren Shoshu for the demolition was the discovery of rust on the pillars within the temple. Engineers discovered that ocean sand had been used in the mortar of the building, risking the Dai Gohonzon's safety during an earthquake. The school also concedes that its demolition of the Shōhondō was an extension of the doctrinal dispute between it and Sōka Gakkai, emphasizing the impiety of the organisation for deviating from its formal doctrines of orthodoxy.
  American architects Richard Meier and Robert Arthur Stern both disparaged the demolition. Terence Riley, former chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York opined that the planned demolition would be a "regrettable finale" to a century that has "witnessed so much loss".
caption: The "Eternal Flame" at the entrance of the now-demolished Shōhondō – photo dated 3 November 1978
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