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 (文字曼荼羅 "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.

The Moji-mandala gohonzon, or the "Mandala gohonzon" (曼荼羅御本尊), is the primary object of devotion in Nichiren Shū and some other Nichiren schools, and the exclusive object of veneration in the Nichiren Shōshū branch and formerly affiliated groups such as Kenshōkai, Shōshinkai and Soka Gakkai.

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