What is "gohonzon"

A Gohonzon is the main object of worship and veneration in most Japanese Buddhist sects while in mainstream Japanese culture and religious lexicon, a Go-Honzon refers to any tangible object of devotion within the scope of Buddhism in Japan, whether a statue or set of statues, a painted scroll, an ancestry Ihai (spirit tablet), deceased ashes, representing ones ancestors, an elemental substance used in a ceremony, or some other religious object that is venerated by the Buddhist faithful.

In mainstream English lexicography, a Gohonzon is accordingly referred to as the calligraphic scroll to which devotional chanting is directed in Nichiren Buddhism. Linguistically, the word "honzon" is a main object of worship which may take the form of a scroll or statuary and "go" is an honorific prefix. "Gohonzon" has been translated in various different ways by differing Nichiren sects: "object of devotion" ( Soka Gakkai), "object of worship" ( Nichiren Shoshu), or "Supreme Venerable" ( Nichiren-shū).

The gohonzon falls within the category of Kakejiku Gohonzon paper scrolls also sometimes known as a moji- mandara ( "script mandala" or "mandala written with characters"). When the Gohonzon is in the form of a pigmented statue, it is referred to as Butsuzo Gohonzon. The Gohonzon is oftentimes, though not always, enshrined within a butsudan altar.