WESTON, Fla.—When the new Ikeda Hall exhibition “Daisaku Ikeda and America” opened on Jan. 20 at the Florida Nature and Culture Center (FNCC) in Weston, Florida, the members saw this significant element in the 60-year advancement of the SGI-USA: themselves.
The exhibition takes viewers through six decades of the kosen-rufu movement in the U.S. in 15-year increments, starting with Ikeda Sensei’s first visit here in October 1960. Interspersed throughout are milestones big and small, from large meetings and youth performances to discussion meetings and Buddhist center openings in small communities.
The years 1960–74 focus on “A Time of Construction,” followed by the years 1975–89, which introduces “The Era of the Soka Gakkai International.” From 1990–2004, the attention turns to “Building a Model SGI-USA” and 2005–19 form the era when “Youth Take the Lead in Propagation.” The exhibition then guides viewers into the Successors Room, featuring the stunning eight-piece Chihuly glass sculpture that Sensei gifted to the youth of America following the 50,000 Lions of Justice Festival in September 2018. Concluding here in the Successors Room, the exhibit opens, rather than ends, on the note of a new era—the era of a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide.
—Prepared by the World Tribune staff
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