Nichiu Shonin (born: 1402, Chief Priest(1419-1482)

Brief:

One of the more controversial of Nichiren Shoshu's early High Priests (see timeline) was Nichiu shonin. He was the 9th high priest of the Fuji School of Nichirenism. A school that is now called Nichiren Shoshu, at the Taisekiji School of the Fuji Schools and is credited with "restoring the sect." He is also associated with two doctrines:

1. He is credited with being the originator of one one of the schools claims about the primacy of the Dai-Gohonzon the Wooden Gohonzon of the Fuji School,
2. And he is credited, along with the Fuji School priest Nikkyo with establishing the notion that Nichiren was the "True Buddha" and Shakyamuni a provisional one.

Much of what we know of him comes from sorting through oral and written sources and by comparing those sources.¹

And he is also credited with becoming a leper². Why is that?

Background

The developing doctrine of the Fuji school owes it's origins to Nikko Shonin who broke with his colleagues and left Minobu temple to found temples at the Foot of Mt. Fuji. Nikko's disciple Nichimoku, was by all accounts Nikko's right hand man and received a transfer document from Nichiren making him successor to Nikko. However, Nichimoku died only one year after Nikko did, and as a result Nikko's school was put into some disarray -- as were all the schools of Nichiren Buddhism (and Buddhism in General) during the early Muromachi period. This disarray lasted from 1333 when Nikko died until the time of Nichiu. that is why Nichiu is credited with "restoring" Taisekiji by most Fuji School Scholars -- and with founding it by most Fuji School detractors.

Who Was he?

He was born on April 16, 1402 (the 9th year of Oei) and is said to have been a member of the Nanjo family. According to the timelines I've gotten from the Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu, he became High Priest at a young age, 17 in 1419 and began to make a name for himself right away. Apparantly what he did was to mobilize the various local priests and lay-folks in the Taisekiji Fujinomiya area to re-populate the local temples, rebuild and restore them.

¹. In 1431-1432 he travelled to Kyoto to conduct a remonstrance with the Samurai and with the Emperor. His remonstrance was recorded, and is recited each year at the Oeshiki Ceremony by Nichiren Shoshu They say:

"As he desired to carry on in the same manner as the previous High Priests, he went to the capital, Kyoto, in order to remonstrate with the samurai class (Yoshu Vol.5, p. 256)"²

I have a copy of that remonstration that I got from "Veggie Eddie 'Bodhispirit." It sounds genuine and he said it came from his NST materials. Moreover, it was a tradition of Nichiren Monks to remonstrate with the authorities in their efforts to walk the path of Nichiren, so it is probably accurate:

With appreciation to the ruler for his kindness in allowing me to present this document requesting that you heed the golden words which have been confirmed by countless Buddhas, discard the slander of the provisional and theoretical teachings which were spread during the Former and Middle Days of the Law according to the sequence of propagation in India, China and Japan, and take faith in the True Teaching of the Lotus Sutra which is supreme in the Latter Day of the Law - then the country will be at peace and the land will be tranquil.

This letter therefore urges that you convert to the True Law.

The following documents are enclosed:

One scroll. 'Rissho Ankoku Ron", written by Nichiren Shonin during the first year of Bun'no

One letter, 'Remonstration of Nikko Shonin"

One letter, "Remonstration of Nichimoku Shonin'

One letter, "Remonstration of Nichido Shonin'

One letter, 'Remonstration of Nichigyo Shonin"

One copy, -The Order of Propagation In the Three Times"

According to the doctrine expounded in these writings, It is vitally important to both priests and laymen to understand that the political system which can govern a country and be beneficial to the people originally arises from the Buddha's teaching. The cause for becoming a ruler is that one made offerings to the Buddha in a previous lifetime.

When we examine the teachings of the sages of other sects, we see that they discard the Lotus Sutra, thereby destroying the country and causing the people to become lost. Attempting to govern the people through these other teachings is contrary to the will of the Son of the Buddha (Busshi), the envoy of the Tathagata. Priests and laymen should be deeply saddened by this.

The means of guiding the people which should or should not be used from among the fifty years of Shakyamurii's teaching is obvious when considered from the standpoint of the capacity of the people and the time. In other words, Hinayana Buddhism should be taught to refute non-Buddhist teachings; Mahayana should be taught to refute Hinayana: Actual Mahayana should be taught to refute Provisional Mahayana; and the Theoretical Teaching should be refuted to reveal the True Teaching. How could anyone disagree with this sequence?

Moreover. the four kinds of sages and saints have followed this sequence of propagation which was given by the Buddha during the Former, Middle and Latter Days of the Law and they would never neglect this sequence. According to this sequence, at first, during the millennium of the Former Day of the Law, Mahakashyapa and Ananda propagated the Hinayana teachings in India. Later, Bodhisattva Nagaijuna and Bodhisattva Vasubandhu refuted the Hinayana teachings and propagated the provisional Mahayana teachings. In the middle of the second millennium of the Middle Day of the Law, T'ien Tai the Great, the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Yakuo, refuted the heretical teachings of the Three Sects of the South and the Seven Sects of the North and propagated the theoretical teachings of the Lotus Sutra in China. In Japan, Bodhisattva Yakuo was reborn as Dengyo the Great and he refuted the Six Sects of Nara which flourished at the time, converting everyone to the Lotus Sutra which enables all people to attain enlightenment.

When three hundred years had passed following the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, Nichiren Shonin, the reincarnation of Bodhisattva Jogyo, appeared in Japan to refute the provisional and theoretical teachings and to unfailingly propagate the True Teachings of the Lotus Sutra. The explanation of the time and the capacity of the people to which I referred earlier is clearly taught in all the sutras. One should not treat the moon itself with contempt by adhering to the reflection of the moon on the water or follow a star which emits a weak light after the sun has already risen.

The sutras upon which the people of other sects rely are obsolete and therefore in appropriate to the time, confusing the provisional and true teachings, lowering the superior teaching and respecting the inferior teachings. With this confusion of truth and heresy, slander of the true teaching and following heretical ones, these errors are manifold. While people are converted to heretical teachings. the Buddha will be disheartened, saints will cease to appear to lead the people, the Buddhist gods will flee the country and devils will fill the land. Internecine strife and foreign invasion win occur. Not only will these calamities happen, but the people will invite the agony of hell of incessant suffering.

I pray that, through the consideration of the ruler, the heretical teachings will be refuted and faith taken in the Five Characters of the True Teaching of the Lotus Sutra of the True Object of Worship, True Sanctuary and True Invocation so that they will be widely spread throughout the land. Then the evil people who fill the country will disappear and the land will be at peace and the ruler will prosper. The country will be governed calmly and the people will live in security and tranquility.

1, Nichiu, following the teachings of the Master, hope that the ruler will heed my statement for the sake of the nation and the Law.

Respectfully,

The 3rd month of the 4th year of Eikyo

Nichiu

Tetsugi master

To do a balanced presentation one has to understand that much of the history of any Nichiren School is oral and based on teachings designed to help monks on the one time and ignorant followers on the other. Thus teachings were and are often taught based on what works at the moment and handed down as traditions. This oral principle also allows later teachers to "channel" earlier teachers and then claim that their enlightenment is the "same" as that of a teacher of a previous era. This oral element of Buddhism is expecially present in the Nichiren Shoshu subschool of the Fuji Schools. It also sometimes results in pious forgeries and materials of doubtful historical worth.

In "Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism"⁶ Dr. Stone says:

"It is by no means certain that Nikko himself actually intended to break decisively with Nichiren's other leading disciples and establish his own school. Among his disciples, however, the tradition quickly emerged that only he, of the six senior monks, had correctly maintained the purity of Nichiren's teaching. From there, it was but a short step to the claim that Nichiren had in fact transferred his teaching to Nikko alone. The "Minobu sojo" (Minobu transmission), an apocryphal transfer document, probably written at least a hundred years after Nichiren's death..."

The real basis for these claims was oral. This quote is attributed to Nichiu from NST:

"Because the true existence of the Tetsugi (passed by hand) Masters passes through all the Buddhas of the Three Existences (of the past, present and future), and has passed through our Great Founder, through the successive generations of High Priests, shedding each in turn, you must be very, very careful to believe this with all your being, and my disciples must believe in me in exactly the same way."[From Derek Djouhl, a Nichiren Shoshu partisan]

This quote shows the heavy influence of notions such as "face to face transfers" such as we see in Shingon and "Mikkyo"[Tendai] Transfers -- and as criticized by Dengyo Daishi and Nichiren himself. Nichiren didn't exclude oral teachings, but said (basically) that they must meet the standards of literal, theoretical and actual proofs or be suspect. There are reasons to suspect there is an appropriate level of esotericism in Nichiren Buddhism. In Shingon, Buddhism had an "esoteric" content that was too profound to be conveyed by simply reading the texts of sutras or by self study. One needed to spend years studying with a "tetsugi master" in order to master Buddhism correctly. Nichiu was developing in the context of these strong "oral" traditions.

Nichiren as True Buddha

The Nichiren School has always placed reverence on all the words and teachings of Nichiren and referred to him as Nichiren"Dai-Shonin" or "Great Sage", During the reign of the Emperor Go-Daigo, Nichiren received the post-humous honorarific "Dai-Shi" or "Great Teacher" but it was the Fuji School that began to refer him not just a "Shonin" but as "Dai-Shonin", which to them carries the notion of a "true Buddha" which is a notion that in it's most extreme form reflects both nativist and "original enlightenment" notions.

It was during the time of Nichiu Shonin, that the Fuji School first wrote down the "hongaku" or "original enlightenment" notions it was developing that Nichiren was not only an emmanation of Shakyamuni Buddha and of the Buddha of the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra as exemplified by Bodhisattva Jogyo, but actually was in identity with this "eternal Buddha" and thus the original source for all persons enlightenment. These notions extended the notion that Nichiren had taught something unique when he taught the Daimoku to teaching that he was in fact the "True Buddha" and Shakyamuni himself a lesser being. Jacqueline Stone notes that these teachings were developed first by Nichiyu Shonin, who was an ally of Nichiu Shonin. This doctrine is expressed in this quote from the Kegi Sho.:³

The place where your direct master exists is the place inhabited by the minds of the Buddha of the Three Existences, the Daishonin, and the successive High Priests. Therefore, you had better to select the correct master and put faith in him. In this way, my disciples shall put faith in me." ("Essentials of the Fuji School," Volume 1, p.124)

The Kegi Sho was actually written (or finished by) by Nichiju Nanjo posthumously.

For more detail on the notion of Nichiren as true Buddha see truebuddha.html

Unraveling the twisted Claims and Counterclaims about Nichiu

In order to understand all the claims and counterclaims. One must establish a firm timeline and then compare them. Some of the complaints then turn out to be spurious or anachronisms. For example:

Montgomery says (ibid. pg. 169):

"In 1488, two centuries after the death of Nichiren, Nikkyo, a priest at Taiseki-ji, claimed to have discovered two documents written by Nichiren, passing on full authority to Nikko alone⁴. The original documents have disappeared, but 'true copies' are preserved at Taiseki-ji. Other Nichiren bodies ignore them as forgeries."

Nikkyo himself came after Nichiu had passed on in 1282. However, examining the claims and counterclaims can help one sort them out a bit. The twin transfer documents were actually kept at Kitayama Honmonji. Kitayama Honmonji was allied with Taisekiji -- until after Nichiu departed -- in 1283 when they broke with Taisekiji. It appears that the formal reason for this split was Nichiu's valorization of the Dai-Honzon and of Nichiren as eternal Buddha. Predominately the later.

"The Untold History of the Fuji School," based on "The Dark History of the Fuji School:

Revealing the Origins of the Nikken Sect" (Tokyo: Daisanbunmeisha, 1997, by Hajime Kawa) chronicles events where these documents were allegedly destroyed or lost, although he is unable to confirm that they were actually among the items in the "treasure box" he describes. He says:

"This box was said to contain many Gohonzon inscribed by the Daishonin...as well as some transfer documents, including the two transfer documents in which Nichiren Daishonin entrusted Nikko Shonin as his successor." [Note that it "was said" to contain these documents, hardly a definitive statement.] ⁵.

By the time of Nichiu, this tradition would have been firmly established -- as an oral tradition -- and monks would have begun looking for documents to support the claims of the school. Additionally, each Temple that wished to be a "Teaching School" needed to have a central "object of worship" that reflected the ideation of that school. One of the Fuji Schools 5 rival temples had a wood Gohonzon inscribed at the behest of Nikko Shonin, it was only logical that Nichiu should seek for one for his own school. The official story is that Nichiu went travelling, and when he came back his own disciples had sold land from the Temple so the temple had practically vanished. He got help from local lay families to buy back the land of Taiseki-ji, and in the process he also had to buy back the Dai-Gohonzon. There are stories that he acquired it from a lay society. For more on this visit my webpage daigoh.html and also continue,

Dai Gohonzon and Nichiu

In "Fire in the Lotus" ⁷ Daniel B. Montgomery says:

"Before [Nichiu's] time the most celebrated relic at Taiseki-ji had been the Ozagawari Gohonzon, which had been inscribed by Nikko on the day the temple was completed, and presented personally by him to his disciple Nichimoku. Nichiu, however, proclaimed that the temple possessed an even greater treasure, one that could be rivaled by no other. It had the Dai-gohonzon, which Nichiren himself had inscribed, not for Nichimoku or any other individual, but 'for all mankind.'"

Richard Thieme writes in one of his posts to alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren, (after I'd made some comments about the existence of multiple Gohonzon being a good thing):

Nittatsu Shonin, in his defense of the provenance of the Dai-Gohonzon notes:

Allegation 8:

The 9th high priest, Nichiu, carved the "Ita Mandara" which had never been seen or heard of. Nichi-jo, head priest of Kitayama Hommonji, a contemporary of Nichiu, reports that, for his sin, Nichiu became a leper for having gone against the fundamental intention of the founder of the temple (Nikko).

Rebuttal:

It is a fact that Nichiu had somebody carve a wooden Gohonzon based upon an original Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishonin. On this copied wooden Gohonzon is Nichiu's signature. It has been housed at the Treasure House of Taiseki-ji. But the Dai-Gohonzon and this copied wooden Gohonzon are two different things. _Nichiu reportedly created the above wooden Gohonzon in fear of the possible loss of the Dai-Gohonzon through civil wars that often erupted in those days.

Richard then went on to note that this indicated that for Nichiu the Dai-Gohonzon was valuable, but not irreplaceable. Later this same fact would be trotted out to explain the infamous Kawabe memo, by saying that the Dai-Gohonzon referred to by Nikken Abe was actually this backup carved by Nichiu.⁸

But in either case, it would be nice to know the date in which these events allegedly occured.

Leprosy and Kechimyaku

Nichi-u, the 9th High Priest of Taisekiji, is alleged to have died of leprosy⁹

Even so Nichiu, wrote at least part of the "Kegi Sho" which still defines the vision of Kechimyaku which energizes Nichiren Shoshu and the other schools of the current Fuji Lineages, and he writes:

"Faith, heritage and the water of the Law are [ultimately] one and the same.... If we do not depart from the faith upheld since Nichiren Daishonin's day, our mind and body will become Myoho-renge-kyo itself. If we act contrary to it, our mind and body will remain those of an ordinary person. If we remain so, it is impossible to receive the lifeblood which enables us to attain Buddhahood in the flesh."

One thing that Buddhism teaches, is that sometimes its a benefit to suffer, as it enables us to quickly purge ourselves of the underlying causes of our misery and reach real enlightenment. Perhaps the allegations of Leprosy don't really matter so much as how he dealt with it. He is said to have wandered to the other side of Mt. Fuji and died there.

Allegations and counterallegations

Bruce Maltz writes (relying heavilly on the work of his Wife:

Several people have asked for some source references for this story. The idea that a farmer from Fuji started the rumor is not a documented source (and it sounds fishy, too...)

The source for the leprosy story is, of all things, from Nichiren Shoshu itself!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GohonzonForum/message/2522

From the "Fuji-Shuo Gaku Yoo Shuo" (Fuji School of Studies V.5 p.39) edited by Horii Nikkyo himself (the greatest scholar of Taisekiji of this century and a High Priest, retired)...it says:

"The 9th generation of Taisekiji, Nichi-u, became a leper."

And again in Vol.7, p.44 of the above mentioned edition by Horii Nikkyo, there is an attack against Nichi-u for various transgressions. In the "Koomom Shoo-gi", p.211 (Orthodoxy of the Nikko School) another reference to Nichi-u and his leprosy is made.

One would ask why Horii Nikkyo would attack one of his predecessors. The answer I got is that he was an honest scholar and printed many things that were historically accurate but not popular with Taisekiji. (He was, after all, a former High Priest, and no one was about to criticize him) It was Horii Nikkyo who said that he had no idea who "Yashiro Kunishige" (the name on the dai-gohonzon) was, or which story of how the mandala came into Taisekiji's possession is true. Nichi-u himself said that Kunishige transferred it to Taisekiji in the 15th Century, which contradicts the story that he had it transferred to wood from a paper gohonzon that had been "hidden" for two hundred years. The popular version today is that the wooden mandala was taken by Nikko from Minobusan to Taisekiji, but there is no mention of such a large wooden mandala being brought to Taisekiji. After all, it couldn't be concealed in someone's sleeve and it is a heavy, obvious object. Nichi-do, the author of biographies of Nichiren, Nikko and Nichimoku doesn't mention such a honzon at all. In fact, there were no wooden Nichiren honzons until the Muromachi period. Even Nikko forbade the inscription of wooden honzons.

..

Another source reference about Nichi-u's leprosy is in "Biography of the Patriarch (Nichiren)" by Nisshin of Yooboo-ji (this temple supplied Taisekiji with High Priests from the 15th to the 23rd one, because there were no priests to serve that function at Taisekiji ).

Nichi-joo, the Abbot of Kitayama Honmonji, contemporary with Nichi-u, wrote, "Nichi-u went against the fundamental intention of the founder (Nikko) and inscribed the board honzon which had never been heard of before.....he received the severe punishment for perverted wisdom and blasphemy agaist the Dharma, becoming a leper, and in Sugiyama in the province of Kai (Yamanashi) hiding himself away in shame, he has died". It is historically recorded that he died in Sugiyama, a very remote place, so that no one would see his condition.

Now Nichijo becomes Abbot of Kitayama in 1283, so he is writing in the period immediately after Nichiu.

Nichi-joo went on to say, with chilling accuracy, "If Nichi-u's madness spreads throughout the world, both the priests and the laity of the discipleship of Nikko will fall to the unremitting hell. How sad for the future."

In the Nichiren Shoshu Seiten, p. 734, by Horii-mai Nikkyo, it is written that the eighth High Priest, Nichi-e, transmitted the Dharma to a layman, Abura no Joren, not Nichi-u. This is in the records of transmission of Taisekiji itself. (Fuji Shugaku Yoshu, v. 5, p.255, "Biography of Nichi-e")

However, it turns out that Reverend Horii was not attacking anyone he was simply updating something written by Nissein Shonin in 1662.

Later Uses for these ideas

These ideas were elaborated on and given a more rigorous logical explaination by the priest Nichikan Shonin who lived much later during the Tokugawa era.³

Later this same style of poetic and creative thinking was going to be used to make Nichiren into an emmanation of the Sun Goddess by the thinker Jimon Ogasawara. But in its pure form, it may simply be meant to break attachment to thinking of the Buddha as being any particular person. The reasoning behind it is based on the actual content of the teaching at the "Ceremony in the Air." With a little "Insight" based word play, one sees that while in his provisional aspect (Shakumon) Nichiren received the Daimoku as Jogyo Bosatsu, in reality Nichiren was the manifestation of "Daitsu Buddha" of whom Shakyamuni received his own enlightenment from or the Buddha of "Kuon Ganjo" or the infinite past, and was thus really Shakyamuni's teacher.

Of course this requires quite a bit of "massaging" of Nichiren's words to prove even a little. Thus when subsequent Taisekiji Fuji School teachers interpreted Nichiren's writings, when they saw the word "Shakyamuni" they would substitute in their own understanding Nichiren himself.

Conclusion

For Nichiko Hori's commentary on this Gosho please visit this page: hori.html. I'd like to think that Nichiu attained enlightenment, even if he also suffered a bout of leprosy. The Daishonin said it is better to be a leper who chants the Daimoku than even the Emperor of Japan or some other great person who slanders the Lotus Sutra. And of course, it shouldn't be surprising that Kitayama Honmonji -- which was Taisekiji's main rival -- should slam Nichiu for producing something that might give it a leg up in competition for believers and respect.

According to something I read, acolytes visit Nichiu's gravesite on the other side of Mt. Fuji when they are ready to Graduate. Somehow I suspect they are told the whole story with both pros and cons and that this is something they are admonished to reflect on. Nichiu, was he a hero, or a heel? We may never know for certain -- and he could have been both.

Footnotes

Much of the sources (pro and con) on Nichiu Shonin are drawn from the "Untold Story of the Fuji school" which in turn draws on the ,Fuji Shugaku Yoshu.

For more sources see: sources.html

1. Untold Story of the Fuji School
2. Fuji Shugaku YoshuFuji School of Studies V.5 p.39)
3. Read: fujishugakuyoshu.htm
4. Marc took the effort to lift quotes from Jackie's book and post them to ARBN recently:The actual source is: "Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Japanese Buddhism" pp.340,341,342 by Jacqueline Stone, which I own a copy of
5. Murano, 'SokaGakkai'.
6. This portion of the book may be seen in "Living Buddhism," July, 1998 issue, p.16
7. (Jacqueline Ilyse Stone, University of Hawai'i Press: Honolulu. 1999. p. 336)
8. Fire in the Lotus (Harper-Collins, 1991, pgs. 171-172)
9. This was a translation by Richard Thieme of a Japanese source posted on arbn

Formal Footnotes

1. The Doctrines and Practice of Nichiren Shoshu Chapter 60.
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. Untold History of the Fuji School

Additional readings:

Perltung Site TOC

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