TagSGI-USA Centers

On the morning of October 9, 1960, Ikeda Sensei took a walk in Chicago’s Lincoln Park during his first visit to the United States. He looked on as a group of young boys played with a ball. When a Black child came along, the others ignored him. When one of them missed the ball and

In the spring of 1992, the world’s eyes were on Los Angeles, as the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked massive social unrest and a national debate about police brutality, racial discrimination and economic inequality. In its aftermath, Ikeda Sensei delivered his poem “The Sun of Jiyu Over a New Land” on January 27,

The previous SGI-USA Las Vegas center didn’t provide enough space for the growing membership. As members formed a committee to search for a new castle of kosen-rufu, there were many false starts and dead ends. But the members weren’t defeated. They refreshed and deepened their resolve each time and took action by conducting chanting sessions

Ikeda Sensei visited the former SGI-USA Boston Center in 1991—a much smaller center on Harcourt Street—and noticed a large clock in the main Gohonzon room. He encouraged the members to develop the fortune to have a big community center befitting the clock. Three decades later, that clock is now displayed prominently in the main Gohonzon

Ikeda Sensei once gave this guidance at the opening of a new SGI center: Soka Gakkai culture centers are not idle palaces of luxury; they are bastions of kosen-rufu. Bastions are a base from which a struggle is carried out. So the most fitting way to mark the completion of a new bastion is with

When the time came to open a new center in Phoenix, the search for a location led to a property in a residential neighborhood on East Myrtle Avenue. People in the community pass through the eastern edge of the property to hike, bike or ride horses in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. However, when vacating it

On April 14, 2013, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the SGI-USA Atlanta Buddhist Center, Dr. Lawrence E. Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, affirmed the SGI’s mission for peace, saying: In the city with the brand of human rights and nonviolence, we must remember today the

When Ikeda Sensei first visited Hawaii in October 1960, he established the first overseas district, creating a framework for members to carry out their Buddhist practice centered on the district discussion meeting. As the membership expanded, the first Hawaii Community Center opened in Honolulu in January 1966, with Sensei in attendance. The address, 2729 Pali

When the SGI-USA Washington, D.C., Buddhist Center opened on June 25, 2008, it was coined the “SGI Embassy” for its location among the stately foreign embassies that line Massachusetts Avenue on Embassy Row. SGI Vice President Hiromasa Ikeda traveled to the U.S. to officiate the opening ceremony on behalf of Ikeda Sensei, who in a

Looking north from the top floor of the SGI-USA San Francisco Buddhist Center, you can spot Coit Tower, a landmark Ikeda Sensei visited on October 5, 1960, two days after he first set foot in the continental United States. Along with a group of local members, Sensei took in the panoramic view of San Francisco

Over a century after 7 East 15th Street first opened in 1887, the SGI-USA restored the building, earning the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award in 1995. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style, and originally containing 27 class-rooms, a library and an auditorium, this five-story building first served as a branch of the Young Women’s Christian

The new SGI Guam Ikeda Peace and Culture Center opened in August 2022. Located adjacent to the Guam International Trade Center, site of the SGI’s founding, this 15,000-square-foot center features a main room with a 275-seat capacity. A stormwater management system, hurricane-resistant design, large fans, all LED lighting and a rooftop covered with solar panels