The autobiographical novel of Daisaku Ikeda, SGI president. The early seventies were decisive for the development of the Soka Gakkai in Japan and worldwide. Shin’ichi Yamamoto intensified his activities abroad, aimed at making Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhist teachings and the humanistic philosophy behind them known. The Soka Gakkai president began an in-depth dialogue with one of the greatest historians of the 20th century, the British Arnold Toynbee. For the first time in history, the doctrine of Nichiren Buddhism could be compared with the insights and profound vision of civilization of an eminent Western thinker. A dialogue that would assume enormous relevance in the years to come. In the same period, the Soka Gakkai, with the moral and economic contribution of eight million believers from all over the world, undertook and completed the grandiose project of building the Sho Hondo, the Great Sanctuary of the Original Teaching, whose construction Nichiren had entrusted to his disciples. Once completed, the temple would be admired as one of the main works of religious architecture of the 20th century. In the concluding part of Volume XVI, the author also describes the events that led to the destruction of the Sho Hondo by order of Patriarch Nikken and the Nichiren Shoshu clergy.
