San Francisco Peace Pagoda

The San Francisco Peace Pagoda and Peace Plaza are in the center of the Japan Center Mall, which was completed in 1968 as one of the first projects undertaken by M. Justin Herman and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) in the Western Addition. Western Addition Redevelopment Project Area A-1 demolished the historic core of Japantown and replaced it with the Japan Center. Unlike the rest of Japan Center, which was funded by corporate interests, the Peace Pagoda was built mainly using contributions from San Francisco's sister city, Osaka. Tokioka said he conceived of the pagoda to demonstrate "the majority—a big majority—of the Japanese people are friends of the Americans" after the June 1960 riots that forced President Dwight Eisenhower to cancel a planned trip to Japan. In the mid-1980s, National-Braemar's parent company, Manoa Finance, went bankrupt and National-Braemar was forced to sell its assets, including the Japan Center development and a portion of the Peace Plaza. The new owner, Sinclair Louie, had discussed building a commercial space on the Plaza, although no plans were ever presented to SFRA for approval. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors responded by passing a resolution to designate Peace Plaza as a permanent open space, and then the City Recreation and Park Commission took complete ownership of the Plaza in 1989 through eminent domain. Construction Construction of the Pagoda was underway when Japan Center was dedicated on March 28, 1968. The dedication was attended by the Ambassador from Japan, Takesō Shimoda, and the deputy mayor of Osaka, Yasushi Oshima; during the dedication ceremonies, the eternal flame was lit from a torch brought from the Sumiyoshi taisha in Osaka. ==Design==

The design for the Peace Pagoda was completed by April 1963, when the San Francisco Chronicle printed an article showing a rendering of the completed Peace Pagoda and Plaza; Justin Herman said he had approved the modern concrete structure over a wooden replica of the Daigo-ji Temple in Kyoto, as he felt the replica would be out of place in the modernist Japan Center. The designer, noted modernist architect Yoshirō Taniguchi, rejected the typical square or octagonal-roofed pagoda in favor of a circular roof, which he stated was inspired by the Million Pagoda (Hyakumantō), a miniature pagoda design that was placed in ten temples by Empress Kōken in approximately 770 A.D. The kurin was cast locally in Berkeley. DPW selected architect Kenji Murokami to redesign the Plaza, and two stones were relocated from the reflecting pool: one, which had previously held the English-language dedication plaque, was moved to the northeast corner (near Post); and the other is adjacent to the new red-tiled wall in the southeast corner. The reflecting pools along Post and the covered walkway were also removed at this time. These renovations were completed in 2001. Peace Pagodas A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. The San Francisco Peace Pagoda was designed as a five-tiered concrete stupa. Unlike most peace pagodas, this one was not constructed by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, which had begun to construct these monuments fourteen years earlier. However, Nipponzan welcomed the pagoda and established a temple in the city. Yoshirō Taniguchi The designer of the San Francisco Peace Pagoda, Yoshirō Taniguchi, was a noted Japanese modernist architect who also designed the National Museum of Modern Art, the Imperial Theatre and the Hotel Okura, which all opened in Tokyo during the 1960s. He was a graduate of the University of Tokyo and the father of architect Yoshio Taniguchi, known for the 2004 redesign of the New York Museum of Modern Art. == Gallery ==

File:Yoshiro Taniguchi & Minoru Yamasaki - Japan Center (model) (cropped).png|Architectural model of Japan Center, looking south from Post (1965) File:Yoshiro Taniguchi - The Peace Pagoda (model) (cropped).png|Architectural model of the Pagoda (1965) File:Masae Yamamoto - The Peace Pagoda - Its Beauty and Its Spirit (1965 brochure).png|Sumi-e by Masae Yamamoto (1965) File:Hyakumantō Darani.jpg|Hyakumantō Darani, the 770 A.D. inspiration for the Peace Pagoda File:Japantown SF Peace Pagoda plaque 2.JPG|Plaque transcription: The Peace PagodaPresented in friendship to the people of the United States by the people of JapanMarch 28, 1968 File:Japantown SF Peace Pagoda plaque 1.JPG|Plaque in Japanese, on one pillar File:Japantown SF Peace Pagoda underside.JPG|The underside of the San Francisco Peace Pagoda File:San Francisco japantowns peace tower.jpg|Image with people, for scale of height. File:San Francisco 026 (491882046).jpg|Visible from Geary File:Peace Pagoda finial (30628404542) (cropped).jpg|sōrin finial detail File:Japantown Peace Plaza (8494719886).jpg|Sunset silhouette File:Japantown Peace Plaza (30159735170).jpg|Interior, lit at night == References ==