Nitcho | Nichiren | Nikko | Six priests | Nichirenism

Lord Toki Jonin/Nichijo (1214-1299)

Leading Disciple of Nichiren,
founder of the Nakayama lineage of Buddhism

Toki Jonin was one of the leading disciples of Nichiren, and basically the leader of the lay members in Kamakura. He received and collected a number of important Gosho, among which are the

Letter from Sado
Kanjin No Honzon sho

These Gosho are extremely important in understanding Nichiren's teachings.

Role as Leader of Hokkeko

He was able to be so helpful this because he himself was a Government Official, a "petty noble" and a retainer to the powerful Lord of Chiba prefacture. Toki Jonin's residence in Wakayama prefacture/Shimosa which time and time again would serve as a refuge to Nichiren monks. Nichiren had to flee there after his dwelling at Matsubagayatsu was burned in 1260.1

As a main lay-leader of Nichiren's followers, Lord Toki was heavilly involved in Nichiren's efforts. Often in the role of negotiating with the Government to protect the members from the wrath of the authorities even as he was busy trying to spread the faith. His enthusiasm for Nichirenism was such that many of his relatives converted. It is to him that the favorite Gosho of the Gakkai "On Attaining Buddhahood" is said to have been addressed.

During the Tatsunokuchi persecution and his exile to Sado Island Toki Jonin's services were invaluable. Indeed one of Nichiren's first actions after the persecution was to write him. The letter from Echi for instance says:

THE government's persecution of me has clearly demonstrated my faith in the Lotus Sutra. There is no doubt that the moon wanes and waxes, and that the tide ebbs and flows. In my case, too, since punishment has already occurred, benefit must be forthcoming. What is there to lament?...

He then refers to Lord Toki's feelings:

Your grief is understandable, but because I have been certain from the beginning that this would occur, I myself do not grieve. Rather, I regret that I have yet to be beheaded.

Of course the next day, was the day when the Government indeed did attempt to behead him. After that failed the government exiled him to Sado Island. On the way to Sado he wrote a letter from Terradamari that detailed his feelings and expectations. He even sent back a lay-priest that Toki had sent to excort him to Sado. After Nichiren arrived in Sado he sent some of his most important letters to Lord Toki's care. These letters expressed that for him this 'persecution' was also the apogee of his life. Gosho sent during this time included:

1271, Aspiration for the Buddha's land.
1272, Letter From Sado

After Nichiren retruend from Sado, Toki continued receiving Gosho from Nichiren, many of them communicated a warm personal relationship between the two. For example in 1275, Nichiren sent a letter in which he praised Toki's mother.2 President Ikeda talks about this in his lecture number 13:

Also:
In 1273 he received the "Kanjin No Honzon Sho
1274, the Problem to be pondered night and day
A Sage Perceives the Three Existences
The Votary will meet Persecution
1277,The Third Doctrine
The Four Stages of Practice

Marriage and Sons

One of the pivotal events of his life, was when he arranged to marry a believer from the Fuji Area named Myojo. He adopted one of her sons, and later had another son by her. Both of these sons were to enter the Buddhist orders and be named Nitcho. The older's name used characters meaning "sun summit" and the younger's name meant "sun clear." The younger son was also known as Iyobo. The Gosho "On Prolonging Life," written in 1279, written to his wife, Myojo, mentions him by name.

The older son would become one of Nichiren's six elder priests, though for some reason he would fall out with Toki later.

His step son, Nitcho even won a debate with a local Tendai Monk and took over administrating that monks Temple. This kind of thing was part of how they were propagating Buddhism at that time. Since they could not bring about a "national debate" the best they could do was to instigate such local debates. This one took place in 1278. The temple won was the one Nitcho had served in as a novice priest. It's name was "Guboji." Nitcho stayed in that temple until he broke with Toki Jonin, one account says he wouldn't leave it permanently until 1302.

In 1279, a Gosho was written to her in which Nichiren worried about her health, even though his own health was failing as well.

In 1280, the Mongols finally attacked Japan. Nichiren monks were among those drafted to fight in that war. By 1281 news filtered back that they had been defeated. This was mixed news as it meant that the Government would not heed Nichiren's teachings, but it also meant that Japanese members wouldn't suffer further. And that military based pressure on Nichirenism would stop for a time. Strangely, it had been a group of warriors including at least one young Nichiren monk who had been at one of the sites from which the Mongols were actually repulsed.

During this period Toki also received other Gosho:

The Treatment of Illness, 1279
On Establishing the Four Bodhisattvas as Object of Worship, 1279
A comparison of the Lotus Sutra and other Sutras, 1280

Leading Disciple

Toki Jonin was heavily involved in Nichiren affairs both in Kamakura and his home province. Toki Jonin had the unique advantage of being able to travel from Chiba to Kamakura regularly as an official of the Government. Thus he was involved directly in the various controversies, and behind the scenes in resolving others -- such as persecutions directed at Shijo Kingo in Kamakura, or at the monks and lay-people of the Fuji Area at Atsuhara (see page named sanmibo).

Sometime while Nichiren was alive, Lord Toki took the tonsure and the name Nichijo. He became what is known as a "lay priest." He also continued to support Nichiren's disciples as a lay leader at this point.

After Nichiren

After Nichiren's death in 1282, Toki Jonin continued to lead the efforts to propagate Buddhism in Kamakura as the defacto head of all the lay believers there. His step son Nitcho and the monk Sadobo Niko were unable to attend Nichiren's last moments and funeral, and after Nichiren's death, friction seems to have broken out between this step-son and Toki-Jonin.

He seems to have decided to turn his residence into a Temple that would later be part of a larger temple complex "Hokekyo-ji" and to take full vows. In the process he allied himself with his friend Ota Jomyo. In the end passing on his legacy to Ota Jomyo's son Nichiko rather than to either of his sons. There is something fishy about this story....

What happened.

When Nichiren died, for some reason the older son Nitcho couldn't attend his funeral. The younger son was there. After the older son returned to Shimosa, according to most of the stories he fell out with Toki and was directed to leave that temple. Though Nitcho wasn't completely gone until after 1300. I've heard various stories, but seen nothing definitive on what happened. Both Nitcho's ended up at the Fuji area, and once Toki was gone they don't seem to have returned to Shimosa. It is just weird that Toki would disown both his sons, expecially when at least one of them was so important to the efforts of Nikko to establish a seminary at Omosu. It is even weirder that he'd leave his two temples to another family. I suspect that this story is more about Ota Jomyo and his family than it is about Toki and the two Nitcho's. But there is only one actual truth, I can only speculate.

Starting in the mid 1280's a new controversy erupted in Kamakura. He cooperated with the two priests Nissho and Nichijo directly and with his son in law Nitcho intimately. Among other things they faced persecution from the Government on account of submitting a revised Rissho Ankoku Ron in 1284 that extended Nichiren's criticisms of the established sects of the time to Tendai and Shingon. This led to persecution. Michael McCormick writes:

Nissho calmed them down by telling them that he was a loyal Tendai priest who simply wanted to reform Tendai Buddhism. Nissho and Nichiro also used the argument that they were simply Tendai reformers and were not trying to establish an illegal sect when the War Minister Yoritsuna again tried to suppress Nichiren Buddhism in 1285. War Minister Yoritsuna demanded that they join the other sects in praying for the peace of the Hojo family (who controlled the Kamakuran Shogunate). In order to protect the fledgeling Nichiren Buddhist community in Kamakura, Nissho and Nichiro relented and participated in the prayers, though they did petition for a debate with the other schools.

Nichiren had warned about the need for this sort of expanded public criticism to be done only by a very "wise person" and had probably intended these criticisms to be saved for debate, but once the die was cast the fledgling Nichiren schools faced extermination unless they could either "wiggle out of their fix" or were prepared to suffer persecution. Only their ordination as Tendai Monks could save them. Nissho and Nitcho made the case that Nichiren's teachings represented a reestablishment and reformation of "Mikkyo" Saicho's true Tendai line. They could make the case because essentially it was true and they seemed to have believed it themselves. The case can still be made that Nichiren's teachings are far closer to what Dengyo intended to teach than those of his own disciple Jikaku Daishi who was enthralled with "Mikkyo" (Shingon related esotericism) very similar to those taught by Kobo Daishi. However, Nichiren was also teaching something new and Nikko later came to believe they had "gone to far" and broke with them. However, in the meantime survival was the issue, and it was lord Toki's efforts which were required to keep their necks intact. He did a good job and the persecutions passed but not before the seeds of internal dissension had been sewn.

During his life he also collected and catalogued Gosho. And he was instrumental in collecting indexes of these, although later critics claim that Nikko criticized him for disregarding those Gosho that were not written in classical Chinese script, of which there were more than a few. Later it was alleged that the "five elder priests" even destroyed or reused those Gosho, that is probably a slander since everyone considered them treasures. What they disagreed about was whether they were "canonical" and that set a tone that was to lead to years of disagreement over which source materials were canonical, which apocryphal, and which legitimate. People who feel strictly about this issue tend to only pay attention to Gosho with "autographs and that appear on his list. This is a bit excessive. Just recently two previously unknown and catalogued Gosho were unearthed from a temple where they'd been for 750 years. This became important mostly after 1288 when Nikko departed Minobu to found the "Fuji School"

Nichijo

Mike's site tells us (see SixDisciples_05.html) that Toki Jonin ordained himself after Nitcho had left, but that wasn't until 1302. But Daniel Montgomery lays out the case that Lord Toki ordained himself. Apparantly he decided that he needed to take his own practice up another notch in its scale of dedication. Because of confucian principles, it appears that he felt he couldn't have his step son ordain him, and so using the Lotus Sutra as his guide he ordained himself and took the name Nichijo. Some sources claim he'd already received this name and was already a lay monk (Nyudo) ordained by Nichiren himself. However, in any case he took a cue from the Lotus Sutra and made himself a full monk using the vows from the Sutra of Meditation. Daniel Montgomery writes:

"...After strenuous spiritual preparation, the candidate takes the monastic vows before the invisable but omnipresent Buddha.
'Shakyamuni Buddha! Be now pleased to be my preceptor!'
'Manjusri! BE pleased to be my teacher!'
'Maitreya in the world to come! Be pleased to bestow on me the law!'
'Buddhas in all directions! Be pleased to bear witness to me!'
'Bodhisattvas of Great Virtue! Be pleased to be my friends!'
'I now by means of the Great-Vehicle Sutras, take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the law and take refuge in the Sangha'(Threefold Lotus Sutra)
This also may have been a statement of his sense of equality with the priesthood. However, it also led to the schools he founded having to struggle for legitimacy. Possibly because he was offended by Toki's unilateral action or perhaps due to other reasons, it was soon after that that he broke with Nitcho. Nitcho departed in 1302 to join Nikko at Mt. Fuji. Nitcho is said to have later given his own name to Nikko's claims that his lineage represented the most orthodox one. The Nakayama school, nevertheless has cast a spell over the rest of the Nichiren Schools, priests seeking a "higher level" often attend a 100 day program there to help them open their "inner eye." Doubtless that program stems from Toki's self ordination. In Some ways it resembles "Mikkyo" esotericism, except that it is open to all.

Nakayama Lineage

Later, he founded the Hokkeji Temple at his home in Wakamiya. The Hokkeji was next to the residence of Ota Jomyo, another important lay follower of Nichiren Shonin. Ota Jomyo's son, became a disciple of Nichijo and was given the name Nichiko. When Nichijo died, Nichiko made the residence of his father at Nakayama into a temple named Hommyoji. In 1545 the Hokkeji and the Hommyoji were united as the Nakayama Hokekyoji. Today, Nakayama Hokekyoji is well known as the location of the 100 day ascetic practice known as Aragyo. This "Arago" practice is loosely based on the same practice that Toki had developed when he ordained himself and continued his efforts as a priest. The lineage begun by Nichijo (Lord Toki) is known as the Nakayama Lineage. The teachings of this lineage influenced the rise of the Reiyukai under Kubo.

or more follow the links.
http://www.kanko.chuo.chiba.jp/omosiro/bay/bay-e.html

Sources and Further Readings

Mike McCormick:
http://campross.crosswinds.net/Ryuei/Zen-LS-5.html
Fire in the Lotus, by Daniel B. Montgomery, ISBN 1-85274-091-4 published by Mandala Publishing in 1991
Jackies bio
and link to Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Tendai
Nichiren in Big picture
Biographical Studies of Nichiren
Mikes version of this story:
http://campross.crosswinds.net/Ryuei/SixDisciples_05.html
Stephanie Maltz writing on Fujefuse
Their source (Senchu Murano):
http://la.nichirenshu.org/history/history.htm
A reference to Lord Toki rescuing him with the help of monkeys is found in this Nichiren bio:
http://www.bea.hi-ho.ne.jp/sigong-12472/nichiren.htm
This is NST's version:
http://www.nst.org/articles/nd6.txt
Related/unrelated
Article on New Religions
Toki's role in collecting things leads to him being cited quite often:
http://www.nsa-usa.org/html/gohonzon.html
A map of lineages:
http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~nichiren/lignaggiE.html
Ikeda talks kindly about Toki here:
http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/SokaGakkai/Study/LearnGosho/Lecture13.htm

Footnotes

  1. According to Daniel Montgomery, this home was often used as a place of refuge.
  2. Also mentions this
  3. http://www.cebunet.com/nst/hfounding.html

To be updated

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