Chapter 3 : The Life of Nichiren Daishonin

Childhood of Nichiren Daishonin

Nichiren Daishonin was born on 16 February 1222, into a fishing family in the village of Kominato, in the region of Awa (presently in the Chiba prefecture).

At the age of eleven he became a novice-monk at Seicho-ji (Seicho temple), near Mount Kiyosumi in Awa: in those days there were no schools, and temples served as centres of learning. As a child, his parents had called him Zennichimaro (‘Splendid Son’).

Initially, Seicho-ji was attached to the Tendai school [1], which taught the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra. Later it fell under the influence of first the Shingon school [2], with its mystic rituals, and later the Pure Land school [3], which taught belief in Amida Buddha. Thus, when Zennichimaro was studying at Seicho-ji, there was much confusion within Buddhism about what was the true or correct teaching.

Becoming the wisest person of Japan

As Zennichimaro advanced in his studies, serious doubts arose in his mind about Buddhist teachings and their effect on the society of his time. How was it that the doctrines taught by the Buddha had given rise to such a profusion of different schools, with such contradictory tenets? And why, despite sincere Buddhist prayers for peace, had Japan been subjected to years of conflict and civil war? Since no priest at Seicho-ji was able to answer these questions, Zennichimaro prayed to a statue of Bodhisattva Kokuzo [4] to grant him the wisdom to become the wisest person in Japan. In a letter to a follower in 1277, Nichiren Daishonin wrote, ‘Since childhood, I, Nichiren, have never prayed for the secular things of this life but have single-mindedly sought to become a Buddha’ (WND p839). And in a later writing, he noted:

Ever since my childhood, I have studied Buddhism with one thought in mind. Life as a human being is pathetically fleeting. A man exhales his last breath with no hope to draw in another. Not even dew borne by the wind suffices to describe this transience. No one, wise or foolish, young or old, can escape death. My sole wish has therefore been to solve this eternal mystery. All else has been secondary (GZ, 1404). TOP - INDEX

The years of study

In his search for truth, Zennichimaro felt the need to master all the major Buddhist texts and their commentaries. He therefore thoroughly studied the doctrines of the Eight Schools [5] as well as those of the later Zen and Jodo schools, and on 8 October 1237, in his sixteenth year, was ordained a priest by Dozen-bo, the chief priest of Seicho-ji. In becoming a priest he took the religious name Zesho-bo Rencho [6] .

For a while Rencho remained at Seicho-ji but, probably during the spring of 1239 at the age of seventeen, journeyed Kamakura to further his studies. Kamakura was the centre of the shogunate, the military government of Japan, while the imperial court and most of the cultural activities of the country remained centralised in the ancient capital of Kyoto. Rencho studied in the temples of Kamakura for three years but, in spite of all his efforts, did not find the answers he was seeking. Disappointed, he briefly returned to Seicho-ji in the spring of 1242 before undertaking a second study journey, to Nara and Kyoto.

The temples of Nara and the monasteries of Mount Hiei and Mount Koya [7], near Kyoto, were the ‘universities’ of Japan at that time, where priests went to hear the teachings of famous priests, or learn the doctrines of Buddhist schools other than their own.

Rencho spent twelve years in the temples of Nara and Kyoto. During that period, he read all the important Buddhist texts to which he had access. In ‘Letter to the Brothers’, written at Mount Minobu on 16 April 1275, Nichiren Daishonin states:

Entering the sutra repository and examining the complete collection contained therein, I found that there were two versions of the sutras and treatises brought to China between the Yung-p’ing era of the Later-Han and the end of the T’ang dynasty. There were 5,048 volumes of the older translations and 7,399 volumes of the newer translations. Each sutra, by virtue of its contents, claimed to be the highest teaching of all. However, the comparison reveals that the Lotus Sutra is as superior to all the other sutras as heaven is to the earth. It rises above them like a cloud above the ground. If other sutras should be compared to stars, the Lotus Sutra is like the moon. If they are as torches, stars or the moon, the Lotus Sutra is then as bright as the sun (WND, p. 493).

After some fourteen years of study, he finally became convinced that Shakyamuni’s ultimate teaching was found nowhere other than in the Lotus Sutra. Further, he realised that he, Rencho, had been born into this world to reveal the teaching, predicted in the Lotus Sutra, by which all people would be able to attain enlightenment in the Latter Day of the Law. TOP - INDEX

Proclamation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

When Rencho returned at the end of his long years of study, the priests of Seicho-ji were eager to learn from him. His old master, Dozen-bo, was very proud of the young man, who had worked with such determination and carried his studies further than he himself could have done. To celebrate his return and to discover the depth of his knowledge, the priests organised a meeting at which Rencho was to preach a sermon, and invited dignitaries from the surrounding area.

Very early on the morning of 28 April 1253 he chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for the first time, thereby providing the key for all future generations to unlock the treasure of enlightenment hidden in their hearts.

Later that day a large audience duly gathered at the appointed time and place, in the courtyard of the Jibutsu-do meeting-hall at Seicho-ji. At noon, Rencho appeared and recited Nam-myoho-renge-kyo three times, declaring it to be the only teaching that would enable all human beings, in the Latter Day of the Law, to reach supreme enlightenment in this lifetime. His audience was completely surprised – no one had ever heard this invocation before.

Rencho continued by declaring that he had taken a new name, Nichiren (Sun Lotus), and then refuted the four most influential Buddhist schools of the time. The practice of Nembutsu, he said, far from leading human beings to a paradise after death, led to the hell of incessant suffering. He described Zen, which categorically rejected all the sutras and was widely practised by the samurai of the shogunate at Kamakura, as ‘the teaching of devils’; he denounced Shingon esotericism as ‘the ruin of the nation’; and attacked the errors of the Ritsu school as ‘traitorous’. Based on Shakyamuni’s Agama teachings, Ritsu taught that a person searching for enlightenment should observe many precepts and complicated rules of conduct.

In pronouncing these four refutations – the so-called ‘four dictums’- Nichiren Daishonin [8] effectively declared that none of the existing Buddhist schools had the power to save humanity, and that practising their teachings actually caused suffering to individuals and society.

If a few people among those listening were touched by what Nichiren Daishonin had said, no one understood him. On 28April 1253, Nichiren Daishonin opened the way for humanity’s happiness, for eternity, ready to confront incomprehension and persecutions. Both began the very same day.

Among those listening to Nichiren Daishonin was a vassal of the steward of the region, Tojo Kanegobu, a fervent believer of the Pure Land school. When this man reported to his master that Nichiren Daishonin had predicted the hell of incessant suffering to all those who practised the Nembutsu teachings, Tojo immediately issued an arrest warrant for the young arrogant priest. His men demanded that Dozen-bo give him up, but Dozen-bo sent word to warn Nichiren Daishonin to leave the temple immediately. Guided by two priests, Joken-bo and Gijo-bo, Nichiren Daishonin escaped by a little-known path and went to Shoren-bo, a small temple that sheltered him for a time.

In the summer of 1253, Nichiren Daishonin went to Kamakura and settled in the small hermitage of Matsubagayatsu. Only a few months after his arrival, in November 1253, a travelling priest became the first of Nichiren Daishonin’s disciples. He was called Joben, but on conversion changed his name to Nissho. He later became the eldest of the six elder priests. Other disciples followed. Some were priests, like the twelve-year-old novice who later became Nichiro, another of the six elder priests. Others belonged to the families of samurai, like Toki Goro Tanetsugu, who later became a lay priest by the name of Toki Jonin. Among these first disciples were also Shijo Kingo, Kudo Yoshitaka and Ikegami Munenaka. TOP - INDEX

Rissho Ankoku Ron - (On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the peace of the Land)

During this period, famine and epidemics were ravaging the country. According to the documents of the time, such as Azumakagami, [9] from 1257 to 1260 numerous extraordinary natural phenomena followed one another. After the great Kamakura earthquake of May 1257, tremors shook the region, culminating in another huge earthquake in August, and again in November. In August 1258 violent winds ravaged Kamakura and a tempest hit Kyoto, causing enormous damage to the cereal crops. In October 1258 torrential rain beat down on Kamakura, causing a flood that killed many people and carried away numerous dwellings.

In March 1259, in accordance with custom, the government proclaimed a new era in order to try to surmount these calamities. The gesture proved fruitless, and in April 1260, the government again proclaimed a new era: that same month an immense fire ravaged Kamakura, followed in June by violent winds and floods.

In 1258, Nichiren Daishonin went to Jisso-ji, a temple in Iwamoto that contained in its library all of Shakyamuni’s sutras. There he met a twelve-year-old novice, Hoki-bo, who had the chance to serve him and soon expressed the desire to become his disciple. In time, as Nikko Shonin, he would become Nichiren Daishonin’s immediate successor.

The Daishonin consulted all the sutras in Jisso-ji’s library, seeking to determine from a Buddhist viewpoint the fundamental cause of, and remedy to, human suffering, in particular the suffering being then experienced by the Japanese people. He concluded that the nation’s misfortunes sprang from its disregard and slander of the Lotus Sutra. The ‘Simile and Parable’ (third) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, for example, speaks of the importance of ‘not accepting a single verse/of the other sutras’. Here and elsewhere Shakyamuni makes it clear that his fundamental teachings are only found in the Lotus Sutra. All the Buddhist schools in Japan at this period, however, with the exception of the Tendai school, were founded on Shakyamuni’s provisional teachings, expounded prior to the Lotus Sutra. Even the Tendai school, which was originally based on the Lotus Sutra, had become sullied by the teachings of the Shingon and Pure Land schools.

Nichiren Daishonin formulated the conclusion of his research in a treatise entitled ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ (‘On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land). On 16 July 1260, he presented this treatise to Hojo Tokiyori, the retired regent but still Japan’s most influential political figure. ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ is known as Nichiren Daishonin’s first remonstrance with the government, and begins with a description of the misery of the era:

Once there was a traveller who spoke these words in sorrow to his host: ‘In recent years, there have been unusual disturbances in the heavens, strange occurrences on earth, famine and pestilence, all affecting every corner of the empire and spreading throughout the land. Oxen and horses lie dead in the streets and the bones of the stricken crowd the highways. Over half the population has already been carried off by death, and there is hardly a single person who does not grieve’ (WND, p. 6).

Nichiren Daishonin expressed his conviction that the fundamental cause of the disasters that had struck the country lay in the fact that everyone, ‘from the sovereign to the most humble’, was opposed to or ignorant of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. He particularly criticised most Honen, the founder of the Pure Land school, a branch of Amida Buddhism that had become very popular in Japan.

Quoting the Daijutsu Kyo (Great Collection sutra) and Yakushi Sutras (the Medicine Master sutras), which elaborate the three calamities and the seven disasters [10], Nichiren Daishonin predicted that civil war and foreign invasion, the only disasters that had not yet occurred, would surely happen if the country continued to reject correct teaching, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Nichiren Daishonin knew perfectly well that he would encounter violent persecution if he addressed ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ to Hojo Tokiyori, but did so nonetheless from profound compassion for humanity, considering the sufferings of others as though they were his own. Sure enough, priests and believers of the Pure Land school soon took action against Nichiren Daishonin and his disciples. TOP - INDEX

Persecution at Matsubagayatsu and exile to Izu

During the night of 27 August 1260, several hundred of them attacked Nichiren Daishonin’s dwelling at Matsubagayatsu, intent on murdering him. The action was instigated by Hojo Shigetoki, father of the current regent Hojo Nagatoki and a Pure Land school follower himself, and was supported by several senior Pure Land school priests. Fortunately, Nichiren Daishonin managed to escape and took refuge at the house of one of his disciples, Toki Jonin.

In spite of the danger he risked, Nichiren Daishonin returned to Kamakura the following spring and once again began to propagate his teachings. His overwhelming desire was to awaken the Japanese people to the truth of Buddhism.

Seeing the rapid increase in the number of Nichiren Daishonin’s disciples, the Pure Land school priests continued to slander him to the authorities and demanded action. This time they were more successful – the regent himself, Hojo Nakatoki, supported their accusations and on 12 May 1261, without even a court case, the government sent Nichiren Daishonin into exile to Ito, a Pure Land school stronghold on the Izu peninsula.

He was abandoned on a beach by his guards they reached Ito, however, and left to his fate. Despite the hostitlity generally felt by people towards exiles, Nichiren Daishonin was taken in and cared for by a fisherman called Funamaori Yasuburo and his wife. Later, they became his disciples. This clearly shows the affinity Nichiren Daishonin felt towards ordinary people, a feeling that was increasingly reciprocated during his lifetime. Shortly thereafter, hearing that the local steward was ill, Nichiren Daishonin successfully prayed for his recovery: the lord also became a follower.

In February 1263, after almost two years in Izu, the Daishonin was pardoned. As he explains in ‘On Persecutions Befalling the Sage’, ‘the lay priest of Saimyo-ji [Hojo-Tokiyori 1227-1263], now deceased, and the priest ruler [Hojo Tokimune 1251-1284] permitted my return from my exiles when they found I was innocent of the accusations against me’ (WND, p. 997). It is also likely that Hojo Tokiyori understood Nichiren Daishonin’s true intention in sending him ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ in July 1260, and shared his desire to protect the Japanese people from further catastrophes. Once pardoned, the Daishonin returned to Kamakura.

The Komatsubara Persecution

In autumn 1264, learning about the serious illness of his mother, Nichiren Daishonin decided to visit Awa for the first time in ten years. His father had died in 1258.

Rejoicing at the news of the Daishonin’s return after such a long absence, his disciple Kudo Yoshitaka invited him to his house at Amatsu. On 11 November 1264, on his way to Yoshitaka, his old enemy Tojo Kagenobu, steward of the region, ambushed the Daishonin and his disciples at a place called Komatsubara. Hearing of the attack, Yoshitaka rushed to the scene with a few of his followers to protect his master. But they were greatly outnumbered and Yoshitaka and another follower, Kyonin-bo, were killed. Nichiren Daishonin himself was injured on the forehead by a sword and had his left arm broken. Even so, once again he escaped. This incident is known as the Komatsubara Persecution.

Nichiren Daishonin returned to Kamakura in early 1268. In January of that year an envoy from the Mongol Empire had arrived in Kamakura with a message demanding that Japan acknowledge fealty to their empire, or face invasion. The envoy was sent back empty-handed and the Japanese government began to prepare for war. This confirmed Nichiren Daishonin’s prediction of foreign invasion, made in ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’.

In April 1268, Nichiren Daishonin sent ‘The Rationale for writing “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land”’ to an active member of the government. In it he explained the circumstances leading to his writing ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’, and reminded the shogunate of its conclusions:

Now, nine years after I presented my memorial [to the lay priest of Saimyo-ji], in the intercalary first month of this year [1268], the official letter arrived from the great kingdom of the Mongols. The events that have occurred match the predictions made in my memorial as exactly as do the two halves of a tally (WND , p. 163).

In October, he sent letters to eleven high-ranking political and religious leaders pointing out that his predictions in ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ were now being fulfilled, and calling for a public religious debate to demonstrate the validity of his teachings. His appeal was ignored.

Nichiren Daishonin was a man of great learning, reason enough for the religious leaders of Kamakura to refuse to debate with him. But he knew that there was another reason for their refusal, which had been clearly stated in the thirteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra:

These men with evil in their hearts,

constantly thinking of worldly affairs,

will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks… [11]

In short, he knew them to be hypocrites who preached doctrines they themselves could or would not put into action. TOP - INDEX

The second warning to the government

In 1271, Japan suffered a severe drought and the government asked Ryokan, chief priest of the Shingon-Ritsu school, to pray for rain. When Nichiren Daishonin heard this, he issued a public challenge, vowing to become Ryokan’s disciple if he managed to make it rain within seven days. If Ryokan failed, however, he should admit that he was a sham, a priest upholding erroneous teachings and deceiving the people, and become the Daishonin’s disciple. Ryokan accepted the challenge, confident of winning, but was humiliated when his prayers failed. Rather than discarding his beliefs, however, he plotted to get rid of his rival. Venerated as a great humanitarian and the foremost Buddhist scholar of the city, he found Nichiren Daishonin’s continual challenges and criticisms intolerable. Conspiring with his followers, he began to spread false and malicious rumours about the Daishonin among the wives of leading government officials.

The tactic worked. On 10 September 1271, Nichiren Daishonin was summoned and questioned by Hei no Saemon, Deputy Chief of the Office of Military and Police Affairs (the chief being the regent himself). Nichiren Daishonin repeated his prediction that the nation would fall into ruin if the true Law continued to be slandered. This encounter is known as the second remonstration with the government (the first was ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’). Writing of this meeting in the Gosho ‘The Action of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra’, Nichiren Daishonin warns Hei no Saemon:

‘If you wish to maintain this land in peace and security, it is imperative that you summon the priests of the other schools for a debate in your presence. If you ignore this advice and punish me unreasonably on their behalf, the entire country will regret your decision. If you condemn me, you will be rejecting the Buddha’s envoy…’

Hearing this, the magistrate Hei no Saemon, forgetting all the dignity of his rank, became wild with rage like the grand minister of state and lay priest [Taira no Kiyomori]’ (WND , p.765).

Not surprisingly, the meeting ended without agreement. TOP - INDEX

The Tatsunokuchi Persecution

Hei no Saemon was far from finished, though. On the night of 12 September 1271, he and a troop of armed soldiers arrested Nichiren Daishonin. Treating him like a traitor, they took him to Tatsunokuchi beach, an execution site near Kamakura: on his own initiative, Hei no Saemon had decided to have Nichiren Daishonin beheaded at once.

On the way to Tatsunokuchi, however, the arresting party passed the shrine to Hachiman, one of Japan’s protective deities. The Daishonin demanded they all stop for a moment. The soldiers complied and at once he reprimanded Hachiman:

‘Great Boddhisatva Hachiman, are you truly a god ? … I, Nichiren, am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sutra in all of Japan, and an entirely without guilt… When Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, Many Treasures Buddha and the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten direction gathered, shining like so many suns and moons, stars and mirrors. In the presence of the countless heavenly gods as well as the benevolent deities and sages of India, China, and Japan, Shakyamuni Buddha urged each one to submit a written pledge to protect the votary of the Lotus Sutra at all times. Each and every one of you gods made this pledge. I should not have to remind you. Why do you not appear at once to fulfil your solemn oath?’ Finally I called out, ‘If I am executed tonight and go to the pure land of Eagle Peak, I will dare to report to Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, that the Sun Goddess and Great Buddhisatva Hachiman are the deities who have broken their oath to him. If you feel this will go hard with you, you had better do something about it right away!’ (WND, p. 767).

So saying, Nichiren Daishonin remounted his horse and the party continued on to Tatsunokuchi. There, summoned by his master, Shijo Kingo [12] rushed barefoot to join him, with his three brothers. He held the reins of Nichiren Daishonin’s horse until they reached the execution site, ready to give his own life.

At the moment when Nichiren Daishonin was about to be beheaded, however, a bright object crossed the sky, turning night into day. Panicking, the executioner threw away his sword and the petrified soldiers were unable to proceed with the execution.

This event is of the utmost significance. Not only did the Buddhist gods [13] protect Nichiren Daishonin, saving him from death, but at this crucial moment he revealed his true identity as the original Buddha by discarding his provisional or transient identity as ‘the votary of the Lotus Sutra’. This is known in Buddhism as hosshaku kempon -literally, ‘to cast off the transient and reveal the true’. In the treatise ‘The Opening of the Eyes’, Nichiren Daishonin writes:

On the twelfth day of the ninth month of last year, between the hours of the Rat and the Ox (11 p.m. to 3 a.m.), this person named Nichiren was beheaded. It is his soul that has come to the island of Sado’ (WND, p. 269). TOP - INDEX

Exile to Sado Island

The authorities detained Nichiren Daishonin, at Echi, Sagami prefecture, as they tried to decide what to do. The verdict was exile once more, and so, on 10 October 1271, he was taken north from Echi, to Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. Here, on 1 November, he was forced to settle in a small, ruined temple in an old cemetery at Tsukahara. He had no warm clothes or enough food to sustain him against the terrible, cold weather. Moreover, the inhabitants of the island were very hostile: not only were they mainly Pure Land school believers, but exiles to Sado were, for the most part, common criminals and normally treated as outlaws; small wonder the authorities did not expect the Daishonin to survive the winter.

Even in these most difficult times, though, Nikko Shonin continued to follow and serve his master. And far from dying, Nichiren Daishonin increasingly won support from the local population and converted many individuals to his teachings, including Abutsu-bo and his wife, Ko Nyudo and his wife, Nakaoki Nyudo and Sairen-bo Nichijyo.

With their foe in exile, the leaders of the other Buddhist schools should have been satisfied, but anything short of his demise was, for them, unthinkable. To settle the issue, early in 1272 scores of priests converged on the island from their home provinces across the sea, in the area that is now Niigata, Nagano and Yamagata prefectures. On Sado they discussed the matter with the deputy constable, Homma Shigetsura, but he dashed their hopes for a quick end to their enemy by telling them:

‘An official letter from the regent directs that the priest shall not be executed. This is no ordinary, contemptible criminal, and if anything happens to him, I , Shigetsura, will be guilty of grave dereliction. Instead of killing him, why don’t you confront him in religious debate?’ (WND, p. 771)

The ‘Tsukahara Debate’ – as it became known - duly took place on 16-17January 1272, pitting Nichiren Daishonin against several hundred priests of the other schools. He describes the event in the Gosho ‘The Action of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra’:

I responded to each, establishing the exact meaning of what had been said, then coming back with questions. However, I needed to ask only one or two at most before they were completely silenced…. I overturned them as easily as a sharp sword cutting through a melon or a gale bending the grass. They not only were poorly versed in the Buddhist teachings but contradicted themselves. They confused sutras with treatises or commentaries with treatises’ (WND, p.771-772).

After the debate, many of those attending abandoned their beliefs, or even converted to the Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings on the spot.

In February, the predictions of a civil war made by the Daishonin twelve years earlier, in ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’, became reality when conflicts arose within the ruling Hojo clan, which culminated in violent clashes at both Kamakura and Kyoto. The government began to take Nichiren Daishonin more seriously and, as a consequence, he was transferred in April from his hut at Tsukahara to an ordinary residence at Ichinosawa on Sado Island.

Shortly after the Tatsunokuchi Persecution, while still on the mainland, Nichiren Daishonin had begun to inscribe personal Gohonzons for his closest followers. On Sado, he produced many important writings including, ‘The Opening of the Eyes’, ‘The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind’, ‘The Entity of the Mystic Law’ and ‘The Letter from Sado’. These Gosho are so important because they explain the significance of the Gohonzon and, in so doing, lay the foundations of the Daishonin’s teachings. For example, ‘The Opening of the Eyes’ explains why the Daishonin is the person qualified to establish the Gohonzon. ‘The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind’ explains why Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the Law to be established, why in the form of the Gohonzon, and why the present period is the correct time for the establishment of the supreme object of worship. TOP - INDEX

Retirement to Mount Minobu

In February 1274, the then regent, Hojo Tokimune, granted Nichiren Daishonin permission to leave Sado Island. This was an unprecedented act, and was probably motivated by two events that took place in 1273: the attempted rebellion of Hojo Tokimune’s brother, and the arrival, once again, of a Mongol delegation to Japan. Both confirmed the Daishonin’s predictions, made in ‘Rissho Ankoku Ron’ years earlier.

He left Ichinosawa on 13 March for Kamakura and on 8 April met Hei no Saemon at the latter’s request. For the third time, he remonstrated with the government, urging it to abandon its support of erroneous doctrines and take faith in the correct teaching. He warned that the Mongol invasion was imminent, but still the government refused to listen. A few months later, in October, Kublai Khan’s forces attacked the southern part of Japan.

According to ancient Chinese custom, if a sage gives three warnings to the authorities and these warnings go unheeded, he should retire to a mountain retreat. Therefore, Nichiren Daishonin retired to the remoteness of Mount Minobu, on the land of Hakiri Rokuro Sanenaga,[14] steward of the Minobu area, in the province of Kai (present day Yamanashi prefecture). His retirement did not mean he was turning his back on the world, however. Rather, it was linked to his profound mission to convince people of the fundamental reason for his appearance in this world. At Minobu he would continue to write and to raise disciples capable of propagating the Law.

On 17 May 1274 Nichiren Daishonin settled in a small house built for him by his disciples in the valley to the west of Mount Minobu. He described his new home thus:

There is not a single dwelling other than mine in the area. My only visitors, as infrequent as they are, are the monkeys that come swinging through the treetops. And to my regret, even they do not stay for long, but scurry back to where they come from’ (WND, p. 755).

He devoted much of his time to writing, and nearly half of his extant works date from this period. He also spent much time lecturing and training his disciples, in particular Nikko Shonin. Nikko Shonin faithfully recorded these lectures in the ‘Ongi Kuden’ (The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings), another of Nichiren Daishonin’s most important works, which gives his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. TOP - INDEX

The Atsuhara Persecution and fulfilment of the Daishonin’s mission

In 1275, Nikko Shonin took the lead in propagating Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings in the Fuji area, centred on the village of Atsuhara, and succeeded in converting many lay people (mostly farmers) and priests. One strong lay supporter in the area was Nanjo Tokimitsu, who had met Nikko Shonin some ten years earlier when Nikko had been sent by Nichiren Daishonin to pray over the tomb of Tokimitsu’s recently deceased father. The seven-year-old Tokimitsu had taken Nikko as a guide in faith and now, though still only in his late teens, contributed wholeheartedly to the propagation movement, making his home the focal point of these activities.

The propagation caused intense opposition from the local temples, however, which feared losing income from converted parishioners. In particular, the assistant chief priest of Ryusen temple in Atsuhara village, Gyochi, grew increasingly jealous and angry. A priest of the Tendai school, Gyochi had been misappropriating temple funds, accepting bribes and exploiting the peasant followers of the temple for his own profit. Seeing his income threatened, he began to harass the Daishonin’s followers and falsely accused twenty disciples of stealing rice while harvesting the temple’s fields. Gyochi conspired with the secular authorities to have them arrested and taken to Kamakura on 21 September 1279, where he tried to force them to renounce their faith in Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. They refused, even under torture and the threat of death.

Meanwhile, Nanjo Tokimitsu fought at the risk of his life to protect the Law and his precious fellow believers, despite severe government reprisals – he was so heavily taxed, for example, that he even had to sell his horse, a vital necessity for a samurai-farmer.

Nichiren Daishonin was deeply moved by the attitude of these disciples, who were ready to give their lives if need be to defend the Law. Realising that the time had come for him

to fulfil his ultimate purpose in life, on 12 October 1279, he inscribed the Dai-Gohonzon. In the Gosho ‘On Persecutions Befalling the Sage’, he discusses the significance of this event:

Now, in the second year of Koan (1279), cyclical sign tsuchinoto-u, it has been twenty-seven years since I first proclaimed this teaching at Seicho-ji temple. It was at the hour of the horse [noon] on the twenty-eight day of the fourth month in the fifth year of Kencho (1253), cyclical sign mizunoto-ushi, on the southern side of the image hall in the Shobutsu-bo of Seicho-ji temple in Tojo Village. Tojo is now a district, but was then a part of Nagasa District of Awa Province. Here is located what was once the second, but is now the country’s most important centre founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo, the general of the right, to the Sun Goddess. The Budhha fulfilled the purpose of his advent in a little over forty years, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai took about thirty years, and the Great Teacher Dengyo, some twenty years. I have spoken repeatedly of the indescribable persecutions they suffered during those years. For me it took twenty-seven years, and the great persecutions I faced during this period are well known to you all (WND, p. 996).

Three days later, on 15 October, three of the farmer-disciples held in Kamakura were beheaded – the brothers Jinshiro, Yagoro and Yarokuro. Seeing that the seventeen others still refused to recant, the authorities realised that further executions were useless, however, and so simply banished them from Atsuhara. The harassment of the Daishonin’s followers continued intermittently for a time, then petered out. Collectively, the persecution of his followers in and around Atsuhara from 1275 to 1281, culminating in the deaths of the three brothers, is known as the Atsuhara Persecution. TOP - INDEX

A life of boundless compassion

Until the end of his life, Nichiren Daishonin never ceased to manifest immense consideration, suffering next to those who were suffering and praying day and night for them. For example, when Shichiro Goro, the young brother of Nanjo Tokimitsu, died suddenly at the age of sixteen, the Daishonin wrote to the grieving mother:

Your late son Goro comes inevitably to mind. The blossoms that once fell are about bloom again, and the withered grasses have begun to sprout anew. Why does the late Goro not return as well? Ah, if he were to come back with the evanescent flowers and grasses, then even though we are not Hitomaro, we would wait by the blossoms; even though we are not tethered horses, we would never leave the grass! (WND, p. 1091)

He continually encouraged Goro’s mother until she found the strength to pick herself up again.

Transmission of the Law and the death of Nichiren Daishonin

By 1280, Nichiren Daishonin had already decided upon Nikko Shonin as his successor, as he states in the document that he transferred to him, ‘The Hundred and Six Comparisons’. Nikko was clearly foremost among his disciples in faith, practice and study. He accompanied and served Nichiren Daishonin twice in exile (in Izu and on Sado), and he was also the most active in propagation activities and in training other disciples. Nikko had a deep respect for Nichiren Daishonin as the Buddha for this age, and understood the profound meaning of his teachings from the viewpoint of faith. He was therefore the person to whom Nichiren Daishonin transferred all his teachings and the Dai-Gohonzon, inscribed for all humankind, in September 1282. He formally certified Nikko as his successor and the leader of the propagation of his Buddhism in the ‘Document for Entrusting the Law Which Nichiren Propagated throughout His Life’.

Shortly after this, on 8 September 1282, his health deteriorating further, the Daishonin took the advice of his disciples to visit the hot springs at Hitachi. He left Mount Minobu, where he had lived for nine years, and stopped off at the springs en route to the residence of one of his lifelong followers, Ikegami Munenaka. Here, in Musashi (present day Tokyo), he drew up his final testament for the future. On 8 October he designated six senior priests as his most important priest-disciples - Nissho, Nichiro, Nikko, Niko, Nitcho and Nichiji – and entrusted them with the mission to train and develop followers in the different regions of Japan.

On 13 October, just before his death, Nichiren Daishonin wrote a second transfer document, ‘Document for Entrusting Minobu-san’, again designating Nikko as his legitimate successor. In this he entrusts all of his teachings to Nikko and appoints him high priest of Kuon temple .[15]

At Ikegami Munenaka’s home that same day, aged 60, Nichiren Daishonin passed away. TOP - INDEX

[1] Tendai school : founded by T’ien-t’ai (538-597) in China. Miao-lo (711-782) is revered as the restorer of this school. It was introduced into Japan in the 9th century by Dengyo (767-822) who had studied the doctrine in China. Thanks to his efforts, the Lotus Sutra become widely recognized in Japan.

[2] Shingon school : school which upholds the esoteric teaching. The word shingon corresponds to the Sanskrit word mantra (secret word, mystic syllable). Shingon bases its doctrine on the Dainichi and Kongôchô sutras.

[3] Pure Land school : A school based on the three ‘Pure Land’ sutras, provisional teachings expounded by Shakyamuni prior to the Lotus Sutra. Honen, the school’s founder, explained that this world of suffering – the saha world - is an impure land and that only by chanting ‘Nam Amida Butsu’ (the nembutsu) could ordinary people be reborn in a paradise situated in the west of the universe, where Amida Buddha resides. This school refuted all the other sutras and in particular the Lotus Sutra. In preaching that salvation exists only in a future life and a faraway land, Nembutsu encouraged an attitude in Japanese society of resignation, inertia and longing for escape.

[4]A representation of this bodhisattva was enshrined during the 8th century at Seicho-ji. Bodhisattva Kokuzo was called the bodhisattva of space because his wisdom and his good fortune were considered as vast as the universe itself.

[5] Eight Schools : the schools of Kusha, Jojitsu, Sanron, Ritsu, Hosso, Kegon, which were properous during the Nara period (710-794), and the schools of Tendai and Shingon which were introduced during the Heian period (794-1185).

[6] The Chinese character ze is comprised of three radicals that signify ’the person’, ’under’and ’the sun’; sho means ’sage’ or sacred’; Rencho means ’lotus growth’.

[7] monasteries of Mount Hiei and Mount Koya: head temples, respectively, of theTendai and Shingon schools.

[8] Daishonin – Literally, ‘Great Sage’; an honorific title later given to Nichiren by his disciples.

[9] An official chronical of the times compiled by the Kamakura government.

[10] Three calamities and seven disasters : Calamities describied in various sutras. There are two categories of the three calamities. The minor ones are inflation (especially when caused by famine), war and pestilence. The major ones are disasters caused by fire, wind and water at the end of the world. The seven disasters include war and natural disasters and are usually considered to result from slander of the correct Law. The seven disasters differ slightly according to various sutras.

[11] LS13, p. 194

[12] (1230 - 1300) Samurai and disciple of Nichiren Daishonin.

[13] (Jap. shoten zenjin): benevolent heavenly beings. Traditionally, gods who assembled to listen to Shakyamuni teach the Lotus Sutra and vowed to guard its devotees, but interpreted to mean the life-supporting and protecting power inherent in the universe, including one’s own life, which can be activated by one’s Buddhist practice.

[14] Hakiri had been introduced to Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings by Nikko Shonin and became a strong supporter. Following the Daishonin’s death, however, he committed a number of slanderous acts under the influence of Niko, one of the six senior priests, and eventually prompted Nikko to abandon Minobu, taking with him the Dai-Gohonzon, the Daishonin’s ashes and other treasures.