The end of the Sho Hondo and the war between the Gakkai and NST

The rejoicing at the completion of the Sho-Hondo was followed by nearly 20 years in which members happily worshiped there. To this day, there are many members who swear by the healing power of the Dai-Gohonzon enshrined in the Sho-Hondo. I know I had planned to visit the Dai-Gohonzon and pilgrimage to Taisekiji one day. Its destruction was one more symptom of the personal nature of the "Temple Wars. between Nichiren Shoshu and the Sokagakkai.

The Beginning of the End

Unfortunately, if unity between "priest and laity" was necessary to accomplish great things, those accomplishments can be easily undone by human hubris and cupidity. Nittatsu and President Ikeda had had a hand in it's creation, and Nikken, Nittatsu's successor was to have a hand in it's destruction. There had been controversies at its building;

It was an expensive place, and the Gakkai paid for it's maintenance until the split with the priests.

Too Big for their britches

it had "Sokagakkai" and President Ikeda "written" all over it.

Indeed almost quite literally, the priests had had to prevent a plaque showing a cherubic President Ikeda in semi-nude from being prominantly displayed in an outside hall. The Gakkai will tell you that the plaque was made by a famous artist and that the resemblence is coincidental, but anyone can see through that story. The priests pull out this plaque to "prove" that President Ikeda was seeking all the glory for Sho Hondo and trying to "hijack" the three treasures. The plaque was more than bad taste or bad etiquette, it was a symptom.

But of course their main complaint was simply that the SGI had become too powerful, too large, and too arrogant. That complaint amounted to power issues and was more important than the religious issues to both sides. Indeed the power issues were legitimate in Nichiren Shoshu's eyes. The "Holder of the Seat of the Chair of the Law" was to be the high priest, not any lay leader. As we saw in the controversy over the building of the Sho Hondo, that authority could not be questioned. The Myoshinkai, now known as Kenshokai, had lost their status as "lay believers" thanks to questioning the priests under Nittatsu Shonin. Nearly one third of the ShoShinkai priests had been "defrocked" for questioning Nikken on this, they weren't going to let even 9/10 of their layfolks dominate them.

Ownership

Nittatsu had lost a lawsuit over its ownership. The Gakkai had made him sue, because the land and money for the construction of the Sho-Hondo had been entirely from them. Losing a lawsuit over a temple that ostensibly was part of their temple-complex was an intentional "loss of face" thing. The issue was resolved when the Gakkai donated it back to the priests, but both the priests and the Gakkai knew that this was an indication of serious problems ahead. The "infamous" Kawabe Memo shows that they considered excommunicating the Gakkai even as they excommunicated the Myoshinko. The controversy led to Ikeda's resignation. Ikeda and the other leaders grovelled enough so that the priests figured that they'd be loyal no matter what.

The issues were papered over. And from 1979-1990 people were encouraged to "support the priests." Priests officiated at weddings and funerals, gave monthly "oko's" and performed other ceremonies. Gakkai members attended those ceremonies and helped the priests become very comfortable in the process. They also kept a mental checklist of what the priests were doing. Some of them were planning to seek "vindication." Their methods and model were classically Japanese. They were planning an "Uchi-iri" campaign to either get the priests to knuckle under to them or to take off in their own direction. The priests apparantly had a similar operation planned. It was nicknamed "Operation C." Both plans involved passively and agressively seeking to win over members while undermining their opponants and putting the blame for all conflict on those opponants. These plans are what destroyed Sho-Hondo.

The Long awaited split happens.

When the overt split occured in 1991 and the priests ordered President Ikeda to step down and the Gakkai retaliated by calling for Nikken's removal. The Gakkai rejected the priests as anachronistic and corrupt, and the result was that the priests rejected the Gakkai in 1991. In 1991 and 1992 the Gakkai stopped visiting Taisekiji. Taisekiji came close to becoming a ghost town. The dispute between the groups quickly became very personal

The beginning of the End

When the priests and Hokkeko started complaining about the Sho-Hondo as being built with "Sea Sand", "not earthquake proof" and falling apart, I knew what was next. I wrote a poem in protest but I knew that neither my protests --nor those of literally millions of other people with the Gakkai and also architects and people interested in architecture -- were going to prevent the destruction of that cathedral."

I think the priests either purposely neglected it, or it became neglected as a sheer result of all the money that needed to be spent on upkeep just so they could get their members to swallow it's replacement. But in either case pictures started showing up of rust, or other signs of neglect. These were purportedly accusations that it had been poorly built, but that was a lie. The sheer effort that it took to demolish it belies that claim. The truth is something that few of these people seem willing to put out in the first place. All the "trial baloons" about sea sand, poor construction, or that it was named badly based on incorrect doctrinal understandings, are all window dressing for the fact that, to the high Priest, it was a constant reminder of President Ikeda and the Gakkai. He held a grudge, wanted a new building, and that is that. He eventually admitted to a reporter that he tore it down because it "stank of Ikeda." He tore it down, and a few years latter had the Hokkeko believers contribute billions of dollars for a new "Hoando" which satisfies all of their groups, is completely owned by Nichiren Shoshu, is a traditional looking building, supposedly a foot taller than the Sho hondo, and avoids the controversial naming.

The Myoshinko was renamed the Kenshokai and is now scaring the bejeezies out of the Japanese establishment from the "right" everybit as much as the Sokagakkai does from the "left" of Japanese politics. Nikken was too afraid of their power to reconcile with them after they succeeded in subverting their rival sokagakkai.html.

To go back please click on this link: shohondo.html. It still makes me a bit sad to tell this story, but such is life.

To read about the current buildings atTaisekiji follow this link:"http://www.nichirenshoshu.or.jp/eng/indexe.html

http://www.taisekiji.net/tour/hoando.htm for a picture of the new "Hoanden"

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