Nichiren Daishonin

Nichirenism Literal Issues Fuji School Shingon School Tendai School Jodo School
Honen Daishi Kobo Daishi School Jikaku Daishi Gosho Lotus Sutra Dengyo Daishi
The six priests Apocrypha Dai Gohonzon Nikko Shonin Niko Shonin Nissho Shonin
Toki/Nichijo Nichiji Nichiro Shonin Lord Hakiri Nitcho Shonin Nichimoku
Esotericism Nichiu Shonin Nichikan Shonin Dozenbo Sanmibo Disputed Gosho
Issues Index Index Main Index
was the founder of True Buddhism. Unlike many religious founders, he left behind a major body of written works called "Gosho" which embody his distinctive understanding of Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra.

Birthplace in Kominato

Nichiren was born on February 16, 1222, in the small fishing village of Kominato in Tojo in Awa Province in what is presently Chiba (see map) Prefecture. This village is located at the tip of the "Boso" Peninsula. It was and is a fishing village. And though the adult Nichiren was, as a Buddhist strictly vegetarian (see this page:(http://webjapanese.com/column/english/990506.html") it was a place that made it's living by fish and by seaweed (Laver). Later in life he fondly recalls eating Laver, and so we know that his life in Kominato wasn't all privation. Kominato now hosts a nice marine acquarium and his birth place has become a tourist attraction. It is no longer the isolated place it once was.

Humble Origins

Jacqueline Stone notes, that he alone of all the founders of sects in medieval Buddhism (at least in Japan) was of common origins. In later life he would refer to himself as a "son of lowly people," "born of a candala (outcaste) family," and the "child of a fisherman1." His father was called Mikuni no Tayu, and his mother, Umegiku-nyo.

For someone like me this is a "Horatio Alger" beginning and a source of pride, but in his day, the Japanese don't seem to have been comfortable with his humble origins. This origin among the common people would present him with obstacles to being heard by the Japanese General Public, which even then were intensely status conscious and were in the process of developing a feudal style hierarchy of classes and casts. Indeed to this day people labeled as "candala" are still the "untouchables" of Japan.

Birth as an Obstacle to being heard

Even so, this "common birth" was to play a major role both in his teachings and the way his life was interpreted later. And he knew what obstacles it presented. He simply was not listened to because he was a commoner. To this day people still don't listen to arguments simply on the basis of who is giving them rather than their literal, theoretical or actual content. While in those days, birth didn't "fix" a persons station as completely as it would a few generations later, it was no mean feat to overcome the stigma of a common birth. Indeed he mentions this as a comparison with the difficulty of attaining Buddhahood in his Gosho "The Dragon Gate".

There were once two major warrior clans in Japan, the Minamoto and the Taira. They were like two faithful watchdogs at the gates of the Imperial Palace. They were as eager to guard the emperor as a woodcutter is to admire the harvest moon as it rises from behind the mountains. They marveled at the elegant parties of the court nobles and their ladies, just as monkeys in the trees are enraptured by the light of the moon and stars glittering in the sky. Though of low rank, they longed to find some way to mingle in court circles. But even though Sadamori of the Taira clan crushed the rebellion of Masakado, he was still not admitted to court. Nor were any of his descendants, including the famous Masamori. Not until the time of Masamori's son, Tadamori, were any of the Taira clan granted permission to enter the court. The next in line, Kiyomori, and his son Shigemori, not only enjoyed life among court nobles but became directly related to the throne when Kiyomori's daughter married the emperor and bore him a child.
Attaining Buddhahood is no easier than for men of low status to enter court circles or for carp to climb the Dragon Gate.

Hagiographies make him a son of Nobility

After his death, "hagiographies" would be written. These would inevitably try to paint him as larger than life. In the case of most people this would be no big deal, but Nichiren was an important enough person and stood up tall enough without all the refinements. Later hagiographies, for instance would try to "fix his birth" or paint him as a larger than life figure. For instance Jackie Stone tells us that later Hagiographies sought to turn him into a son of the nobility.2 In one work,the Hokke Honmonshu yosho (which is probably 'apocryphal' and written 50 years after his death), he is referred to as "Gon no Kami" which is a term for exiled nobles or "downwardly mobile" families. His father may have been a manager (Shoshi) or official (shokan) of the local manor but he certainly was not a noble. His family might have been descended from a once noble family, but it is equally likely that they had never had any status and were the descendents of generations of fishermen. They could even have been descended from the original inhabitants of Japan and not from the mostly Korean descendnets of the Emperor Jimmu.

Hagiographies and associated "Pious forgeries often say more about their authors and the lineages they represent than they do about Nichiren. Nichiren himself warned about taking them too seriously. In his "Ho'on Sho" he would depict how hagiographers painted Kobo Daishi as larger than life, and dismissed such efforts as piling up a mountain of BS. He felt that the religious strife in Japan owed, in fact, largely to such deceitful practices.

Fundamentalism

This common birth probably reinforced his identification with the founder of Japanese Tendai, Dengyo Daishi, (the founder of the "Hokke" or "Tendai" School and the man he considered his real mentor) -- who also had to struggle with origins outside of the elites of Japan. Dengyo Daishi was able to acquire status through a journey to China and get an audience to be heard on the pure strength of his knowledge and the wisdom of his words. In his famous debate with the "six sects" of Nara, he was able to take advantage of the fact that he had come along at the same time as an Emperor who had the power, motivation and desire for change, and thus was prepared to listen to him. Had the Emperor not been moving the capitol eastward at the same time as he encountered Dengyo Daishi, that message might not have come through so clearly. Even so Dengyo only won his debates "post-humously" and had to struggle to keep his own disciples from defecting to the enticing mysteries of Kobo Daishi's Shingon. And after his death Dengyo's teachings were nearly set aside by his own disciples. It would be Nichiren who would take up the "gauntlet" first thrown down by the "Ebyo Shu" and take on the fundamental tension between the promise of universal enlightenment in the Lotus Sutra and the provisional but enticing teachings of Tantra with their promise of awakening, nirvana, and joy for the initiated only.

Upaya and the Lotus Sutra

Nichiren, was thus a "fundamentalist" in the classical sense, of one who goes to the original teachings. His style of study and teaching presaged modern literary criticism, though the "deconstruction" was always with the purpose of edification. This is because it was based on the Lotus Sutra, which clarifies the important principle of "Upaya"/Skillfulness/creativity or in Japanese "Hoben." The integrity of Nichiren's logic was clearly based on the Lotus Sutra and the path first blazed by T'ien't'ai and Dengyo. He borrowed some of the forms and a few ideas from the people he criticized but he held tight to that logical and interpretative base. Nichiren's criticisms of Esotericism take off where Dengyo had left off. His disciples would later win every fair debate they engaged in. He wasn't so much advocating a particular religion as a very logical and yet creative and faithful approach to religion. For him the Lotus Sutra was the supreme teaching not because someone said it was, but because it embodied the principles of "literary" theoretical and "actual proofs."

For other pages with his biography:
Pictoral Biography by H.G. Lamont
"Udumbara:"http://www.udumbarafoundation.org/TrueBuddhism/nichirendaishonin.html
NST: http://www.nst.org/articles/NDPt1.txt

Seicho-ji Temple

His childhood name was Zennichi-maro. He must have been very bright, because he was sent to the local monastery, Seicho-ji, at the age of 12 for education, and they wouldn't have taken him on if he hadn't been. That is also attested by some surviving works in the hand of his teachers at Seichoji which discuss him in glowing terms. Nichiren studied both Buddhist and secular teachings under the chief priest, Dozen-bo, and assisted by other preists, Joken-bo and Gijo-bo, who had the wisdom to become his disciples later in life.

Seicho-ji or Kiyosumi-dera was a Tendai Temple, but also had come under a heavy esoteric influence (Shingon and "Mikkyo" and at the time of Nichiren's youth, was -- like most of the temples in Japan -- under the influence of Pure land Buddhism. Kiyosumi-Dera is now-adays famous for it's Garden as well as for Nichiren's being an acolyte there, but it had been founded purportedly by the priest Fushigi in 771 and restored by Ennin (Jikaku Daishi) during his journeys in Eastern Japan during the Showa Era (834-847)3. It became a Nichiren temple years later, after a swap of buildings allowed one of the Nichiren Sects to switch a traditionally important Shingon Temple, that they had won in a debate, for it.

A Jewel

According to the "Seicho-ji Daishu Chu" (Letter to the Priests of Seicho-ji) written in 1276, Zennichi-maro prayed before a statue of Bodhisattva Kokuzo (Akasagarbha) at Seicho-ji, asking to become the wisest man in Japan. Because of these prayers he obtained a "jewel of wisdom" which later enabled him to grasp the essence of all the sutras. This may indicate that he undertook the Kokuzo Bosatsu gumonji-ho ritual for strengthening the powers of memory that centered on the repeated invokation of Bodhisatva Kokuzo's name. This practice is probably what he is refering to in the Gosho "The Letter to the Priests of Seichoji:"

"before my eyes, the bodhisattva Kokuzo became a dignified monk and presented me with a jewel of wisdom like a bright star"4

Dozen-bo, Honen, and others

He also says that he was under the influence of the teacher Honen Daishi via his mentor Dozen-bo, whom was a devotee of the Tendai version of those teachings. He refers to this in the Gosho "Letter from Sado". He writes in that letter:

"Since Nichiren himself committed slander in the past, he became a Nembutsu priest in this lifetime, and for several years he also laughed at those who practiced the Lotus Sutra, saying, "Not a single person has ever attained Buddhahood through that sutra" or "Not one person in a thousand can reach enlightenment through its teachings." Awakening from my slanderous condition, I feel like a drunken son, who, in his stupor, strikes his parents but thinks nothing of it. When he returns to his senses, he regrets it bitterly but to no avail. His offense is extremely difficult to erase."Sado Gosho

Willingness to challenge even ones Teachers

He refers to this, and his willingness to challenge his own master on this, directly in a Letter that comes down to us under the title "The Learned Doctor Shan Wu Wei" Dozen-bo was evidently someone who had some talent for carving images and had been influenced by Honen Daishi though he lacked enough status, or even opportunity, to have ever been his disciple. Nichiren says that later in life Dozenbo asked him:

"I have neither wisdom nor any hope for advancement to important position. I am an old man with no desire for fame, and I claim no eminent priest of Nembutsu as my teacher. But because this practice has become so widespread in our time, I simply repeat like others the words Namu Amida Butsu. In addition, though it was not my idea originally, I have had occasion to fashion five images of Amida Buddha. This perhaps is due to some karmic habit that I formed in a past existence. Do you suppose that as a result of these faults I will fall into hell?"

Repaying Debts of Gratitude by following Dharma

And we can see how important this was to Nichiren because he says next:

"Now I, Nichiren, have repaid the debt of gratitude that I owe to my teacher, and I am quite certain that both the Buddhas and the gods will approve what I have done. I would like to ask that all I have said here be reported to Dozen-bo."

Nichiren was not one for being obsequious or deferent to even his own mentor on matters of truth or religion. Indeed he next says:

Even though one may resort to harsh words, if such words help the person to whom they are addressed, then they are worthy to be regarded as truthful words and gentle words. Similarly, though one may use gentle words, if they harm the person to whom they are addressed, they are in fact deceptive words, harsh words. (Learned Doctor Shan Wu Wei)

This is a radical departure from typical master/disciple relationships and a reinterpretation of Confucian doctrine. Even modern Japanese have trouble confronting a teacher in this matter. One can only admire his courage and wish that more of us, his later day disciples, had that kind of courage and devotion to the truth. It wasn't arrogance, since he assigns himself some of the blame for believing Honen's teachings.

Dozenbo had probably been influenced as much by Enshin, a Tendai Teacher on whom Honen had latched his teachings to, as by Honen himself. At any rate, Nichiren made refuting Honen part of his efforts, and this defined his teachings and at the same time brought him into conflict with the establishment.

The Wise learn from their students

Later in life Nichiren was able to convince him to stop carving images of Amida Buddha and to carve images of Shakyamuni Buddha. He says this about that accomlishment:

"I explained all this in detail to Dozen-bo at the time of our interview, though it did not appear that he completely understood what I was saying. Nor did the other persons present on that occasion seem to understand. Later, however, I received word that Dozen-bo had com to take faith in the Lotus Sutra. I concluded that he must have renounced his earlier heretical views and had hence become a person of sound belief, a thought that filled me with joy. When I also heard that he had fashioned an image of Shakyamuni Buddha, I could not find words to express my emotion. It may seem as though I spoke to him very harshly at the time of our interview. But I simply explained things as they are set forth in the Lotus Sutra, and that is no doubt why he has now taken such action. They say that words of good advice often grate on the ears, just as good medicine tastes bitter."

Years of Study

At the age of sixteen, he was formally ordained and took the name Zesho-bo Rencho under his teacher Dozenbo. Soon after, he left for Kamakura to further his studies. Three years later, he returned briefly to Seicho-ji and then set out again for the major centers of Buddhist learning at Mt. Hiei, Mt. Koya, Mii-dera temple and other temples in the Kyoto and Nara areas.

During these years he studied all the sutras and their commentaries that he could get his hands on, and he received transmissions from most of the major sects of Buddhism in Japan. Which means that he probably was initiated into the teachings of the Mt. Koya, shingon, Vaijra and Mahavairochana esoteric teachings, as well as those of Mt. Hei. Some of those copies are still extent. His understanding of "Mikkyo" (esotericism) made him a potent critic of Tantric Buddhism. See kobo.html for more on this.

We know that he copied many of the works he studied because some of those copies are still extent. Probably from Studying Dengyo Daishi's writings and those of T'ien-t'ai, he became convinced that the highest of Shakyamuni's teachings is the Lotus Sutra. Studying the Lotus Sutra intensely he became convinced that exclusive devotion to the Lotus Sutra was the proper practice, and that the mix of esoteric (requiring face to face transfers of wisdom) and exoteric Buddhist Teachers had made an error in setting aside the Lotus Sutra in favor of other teachings. The Lotus Sutra advocates embracing "even a single phrase" or the title of the Lotus Sutra as a practice capable of benefiting even the "50th person." This principle, the teaching that the "higher the teaching, the lower the teaching benefits" motivated him to see that the true practice for the later day should be, not invoking the name of a distant Buddha and emmanation of Shakyamuni, but embracing and reciting the Lotus Sutra and it's Title.

Thus the Great Pure Law which leads directly to enlightenment in the Latter Day of the Law is implicit in that sutra. The Lotus Sutra also teaches that the mission of propagating the Lotus Sutra in the Later day will fall to the Bodhisattvas of the Earth headed by Bodhisattva Superior practices or Bodhisattva Jogyo. It also says that the efforts of believers in the Lotus Sutra would be opposed by monks, sages and laypeople who wouldn't believe it's message. He observed how at, even the Tendai Sect -- which was founded on Shakyamuni and the Lotus Sutra teachings -- those teachings were being depreciated and images of "Dainichi Nyorai (MahaVairochana) and Amida (Amitabha) were being built. Although, he saw this he initially emphasized the errors of the Jodo Sect in promoting exclusive practice of the Nembutsu teachings. One of his earliest essays is an attack on Honen's teachings and their slander of "Mahayana" that he later systematized as "slander of the Dharma." He specifically criticized Honen for slandering the "Lotus Sutra" by advocating in his "Senchaku Shu" that practitioners of the Nembutsu "close, discard, abandon" the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

Mappo/Latter day of the Dharma

Everyone was convinced that it was the opening of the "age of Mappo" when Shakyamuni's mainline teachings would loose their power to save people, so they felt it appropriate to turn to imaginary or idealized teachings in the place of them. Unfortunately in 1222, despite prayers from the very heads of the Shingon and Tendai schools near Kyoto, the Emperor Gotoba was defeated in battle and exhiled to Sado Island. Nichiren saw that there was something wrong with teachings that promised so much and delivered so little. He studied further and found his answer in the text of the Lotus Sutra and it's exegis on the evil teachers and practitioners of the later day. Nichiren read the Lotus Sutra and saw it's admonitions to embrace, practice and spread that teaching in the Later day. He saw how people were slandering the Lotus Sutra instead. What the Lotus Sutra said would happen when such conditions prevailed was exactly what was occuring in his own country. So he studied and meditated on these matters and came to the realization that he had to say something. He resolved to denounce the misconceptions of the prevailing sects openly in spite of the persecutions which the Lotus Sutra predicts its votary will experience.

Proclaiming True Buddhism

At the age of thirty-two, he returned to Seicho-ji. On April 28th 1253, in the morning he is said to have chanted the Daimoku for the first time(see this link, it is magnificent). At noon, he preached at the Jibutso-do Hall in a lodging temple called the Shobutsu-bo to an assembly of priests and villagers who had gathered at Seicho-ji to hear the results of his studies. In his first sermon he declared that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the only teaching in the Latter Day of the Law which enables all people to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. On this occasion he renamed himself Nichiren (Sun Lotus). He also denounced the widespread doctrine of the Nembutsu as a teaching which drives people into the hell of incessant suffering.*

According to his own accounts, Tojo Kagenobu, the steward of the area and a confirmed Nembutsu believer, became furious on hearing of this and ordered his warriors to arrest the Daishonin, who narrowly managed to escape with the help of two of his seniors, Joken-bo and Gijo-bo. According to Jacqueline Stone, the narrative may be a little more complicated, but the jist of the story is correct. After converting his parents and giving the Buddhist names Myonichi to his father and Myoren to his mother, he headed for Kamakura to launch his lifelong propagation activities.

*(The four dictums, with which he denounced the four leading sects of the time, Nembutsu, Zen, Shingon and Ritsu, are thought to have been formulated later.

Kamakura

In Kamakura he lived in a small dwelling at a place called Matsubagayatsu in Nagoe. He devoted the next several years primarily to converting individuals, eventually gathering a large number of converts. Among the first priests to become his disciples were Nissho and Nichiro. Lay converts included Toki Jonin, Shijo Kingo, Kudo Yoshitaka and the Ikegami brothers. He had other converts in and around Kamakura as well. He grew close to Yoshimoto Hiki, who was the last survivor of a clan the Hojo's had exterminated when they deposed the son of the Minamoto's in 1203. Japan at that time was experiencing a succession of unusually severe storms, earthquakes, drought, famine, epidemics and other disasters. Corpses littered the streets. Government relief measures and prayers offered by shrines and temples all proved ineffective. An earthquake which struck Kamakura in August of 1257 destroyed a great many houses and almost all the temples and shrines in the city. The Daishonin, determined to provide documentary proof of the cause and solution of these calamities in terms of Buddhism, went to Jisso-ji temple in Suruga Province to do research in its sutra library. The person who was assigned to serve the Daishonin there was Nikko Shonin, then a boy of fifteen, who would later become his successor -- at least according to the Fuji Lineages.

Rissho Ankoku Ron

From 1259 to 1260, Nichiren lived in a quiet country Temple of the Tendai Sect outside of Kamakura named Jisso-ji Temple and composed a treatise that was to cause quite a stir when he submitted it. In it he quoted from classical Chinese and many sutras, not just the Lotus Sutra. According to the spokesmen for Myohonji, Yoshimoto Minamoto (Hiki clan on mothers side), the last survivor of the Minamotos, helped him put his finishing touches on the Rissho Ankoku Ron. In any event he wrote two versions, One in Chinese and a shorter one in Japanese that was a kind of abstract for those who couldn't understand the language of the other.

On July 16, 1260, Nichiren Daishonin submitted this treatise entitled "Rissho Ankoku Ron" (On Securing the Peace of the Land through the Propagation of True Buddhism) to the retired regent, Hojo Tokiyori, the most influential man in the Kamakura shogunate. In it he attributed the disasters ravaging the country to slander of the True Law and belief in false teachings. In particular, he saved his harshest critiques for the Jodo (Pure Land) sect, focusing on the above mentioned Nembutsu teachings of Honen Daishi. He hoped to bring about a debate and thus formally "refute" the erroneous teachings of that teacher.

Of the three calamities and seven disasters described in the sutras, he predicted that there were two disasters which had yet to occur; internal strife and foreign invasion which would be the inevitable consequence of the Government continuing to support misleading schools. Nichiren was urging on the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra as an alternative practice to be embraced without delay. In the Rissho Ankoku Ron he laid out how "slander of the dharma" was threatening the country with ruin from internal strife and foreign invasion.

The submission of the "Rissho Ankoku Ron" is considered his first remonstration with the government.

Persecution

There was no official response to this document, but a group of Nembutsu believers, though to have been incited by priests and government officials, attacked his dwelling on the night of August 27. According to legends Nichiren woke 12 days later being tugged on the sleeve by monkeys. The monkeys took him up a wooded path to a cave on a hill above his dwelling. He was fortunate his hut was being attacked at the same time and the monkeys had saved him.5 The Daishonin escaped with a few disciples and stayed briefly with Toki Jonin in Shimosa Province. The next spring, however, he returned to Kamakura. This time the Nembutsu priests and government authorities contrived to have charges of defamation made against him, and he was sentenced without trial or further investigation to exile in Ito on the Izu Peninsula.

Izu Exhile

The boatmen charged with his transport did not take him to Ito but abandoned him on a beach called Kawana to the mercy of the local inhabitants, many of whom hated him and were in any case hostile to exiles. The Daishonin was sheltered for a time by a fisherman called Funamori Yasaburo and his wife. Later the Daishonin won the favor of Lord Ito, who converted to his teachings when the Daishonin successfully prayed for the lord's recovery from illness. During this time there were also some wonderous events, one of which was that a small statue of the Buddha was found, which was given to Nichiren. The Daishonin was pardoned and returned to Kamakura in February 1263.

Komatsubara Persecution

His father had already died in 1258. Knowing that his mother was critically ill, the Daishonin returned to his native Awa in the autumn of 1264. As a result of his prayers for her, she recovered quickly and lived four years longer. He stayed in Awa for a while, and conducted propagation activities. On November 11, while still in Awa, he set out with a group of believers to visit Kudo Yoshitaka, one of his followers, at his invitation. En route they were ambushed by Tojo Kagenobu and his men at a place called Komatsubara. The Daishonin's disciple Kyonin-bo, and Kudo Yoshitaka, who came rushing to his aid, were killed in the ensuing struggle. The Daishonin sustained a sword cut on his forehead and a broken hand. This incident is called the Komatsubara Persecution.

Mongol Invasion and Further Remonstrations

For the next three years or so, the Daishonin devoted himself to propagation efforts in Awa, Kazusa, Shimosa and Hitachi provinces, returning to Kamakura early in 1268. On January 18 of that year, a letter from Khubilai Khan of the Mongols arrived in Kamakura with a demand that Japan acknowledge fealty to the Mongol Empire and pay tribute or prepare to be invaded. The arrival of the Mongol's letters substantiated the Daishonin's earlier prophecy of foreign invasion. In April the Daishonin sent the "Ankoku Ron Gokan Yurai" (Rationale for Submitting the "Rissho Ankoku Ron") to Hokan-bo, a government official, pointing out that the prediction made in his "Rissho Ankoku Ron" was beginning to come true and urging the government to heed his advice. On October 11, he sent eleven letters to influential political and religious leaders, urging them to abandon their faith in erroneous teachings and demanding the opportunity to uphold his teaching in a public religious debate. There was no response.

Debate with Ryokan

In 1271 the country was troubled by persistent drought, and the government ordered Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji temple, and eminent priest of the Shingon-Ritsu sect, to pray for rain. Hearing of this, the Daishonin sent Ryokan a written challenge offering to become his disciple if Ryokan succeeded in bringing about rain; on the other hand, if Ryokan failed, he should become the Daishonin's disciple. Ryokan readily agreed, but in spite of his prayers and those of hundreds of attendant priests, no rain fell. Far from keeping his promise, he vindictively began to spread rumors about the Daishonin, using his influence among the wives and widows of government officials. He told them falsely that the Daishonin said their deceased husbands had fallen into the hell of incessant suffering.

Daniel Montgomery writes, taking the point of view of Hei No Saemon:

"The summer of 1271 did not bring foreign invaders to the shores of Japan, but it did bring drought. The spring rains were light, and the summer was dry. By September the farmers were desperate." "Since Ryokan would not meet him in open debate, Nichiren challenged him to pray for rain and demonstrate his spiritual powers. Of course temples throughout the land had been praying for rain all summer, but Nichiren pointedly avoided all rain-making ceremonies. Then he announced that he'd pray for rain. Within a few days the clouds gathered and showers poured down on the parched land. As far as the Minister of War was concerned, the prayers of any of the countries temples might have brought the rains, and it was ridiculous for Nichiren to claim sole credit. But ignorant people had been impressed and that could weaken the authority of the official high priest, Ryokan. It was time to get rid of Nichiren once and for all."note

Persecution Komatsubara

On September 10 the Daishonin was summoned to court and interrogated by Hei no Saemon, the deputy director of the Office of Military and Police Affairs. Nichiren Daishonin denied the charges of libel against the deceased officials but added that he had indeed been exposing the heresies they had followed when they were alive. He reemphasized the evil of misleading religions and repeated his prediction that the country would face ruin if it continued to deny the True Law. This encounter marked his second remonstration with the government. It also marks the beginning of his open criticisms of "Mikkyo" or "esotericism/tantrism" that found their way into his later writings.

Tatsunokuchi Persecution

On the afternoon of September 12, Hei no Saemon arrested the Daishonin, who was subsequently charged with treason and sentenced to exile on Sado Island. However, Hei no Saemon decided on his own to have the Daishonin beheaded, and took him late that night to the execution grounds at Tatsunokuchi Beach. In the Hagiographies (autobiographical works supposed to have been written by Nichiren himself, but possibly authored years later), it is recounted that just as the executioner was about to lower his sword, a brilliant object shot across the sky, terrifying Hei no Saemon's men and making it impossible to carry out the execution. This incident is called the Tatsunokuchi Persecution. (For more on this click this link).

Hossaku Kempon

After this persecution, Nichiren's writings acquired a new authoritativity and he believed he had lived the role of Jogyo Bosatsu(Superior Practices) as predicted in the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren Shoshu also claims "At this point, according to the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu, Nichiren Daishonin relinquished his transient status as Bodhisattva Jogyo who was entrusted by Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sutra with the propagation of the Law in the Latter Day, and revealed his true identity as the original Buddha. This is called hosshaku kempon. According to the other schools, and according to his own writings. His "transcient status" was that of a votary and after that he became "Like Bodhisattva Jogyo". In any case he never referred to himself as the "true buddha" though in some of the apocryphal ("disputed") writings he refers to others as being "true Buddhas." Instead, what he did refer to, was the eternal principle as identified with the eternal Buddha, that all Buddhas are enlightened to, and that is superior to any ephemerol entity. If one uses the notion of general and specific to explain that the "ideal Buddha," subsequent sages and teachers, and the Historical Buddha, are ultimately related to the eternal and unchanging principles of reality, and thus to the teachings themselves which are the content of the "original Buddha's" eternal message; The father of the world is the "Shakyamuni of the sixteenth chapter" who is not Shakyamuni in his "transcient status" or even in his "ideal status" but in a status that can only be conveyed with the word "Archetype" or "eternal Buddha." This Buddha exists only in identity with the "Dharma" itself. (Oneness of Person and Law). All transcient "persons" have the capacity to tap into or display that "innate" (hongaku) Buddha Nature, but are not Buddhas unless they actually(Ji-no Bosatsu or Ji-no butsu) do so. Using this distinctions of "general and specific" (So and Betsu) the "eternal Shakyamuni" is an eternal truth not to be confused with specific manifestations such as the human teachers Shakyamuni, or Nagarjuna or Nichiren himself.

Time on Sado

On October 10, after almost a one-month stay in Echi, Sagami Province, Nichiren Daishonin left under escort for Sado Island, his designated place of exile, and arrived at Tsukahara on November 1. There, he was assigned a dilapidated hut in a graveyard as his dwelling, exposed to the wind and snow. On January 16 and 17 in the following year, he defeated hundreds of priests from Sado and the mainland who had come to confront him in religious debate. This encounter is called the Tsukahara Debate. In February of that year, the Daishonin's prediction of internal strife was fulfilled when Hojo Tokisuke, an elder half brother of Regent Hojo Tokimune, made an unsuccessful attempt to seize power. In April the Daishonin was transferred from Tsukahara to the residence of Ichinosawa Nyudo.

On Sado he wrote many of his most important works including the
Letter from Sado
"Kaimoku Sho" (The Opening of the Eyes),
"Kanjin no Honzon Sho" (The True Object of Worship),
"Shoji Ichidaiji Kechimyaku Sho" (Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life),
"Shoho Jisso Sho" (The True Entity of Life),
"Totaigi Sho" (The Entity of the Mystic Law),
"Kembutsu Miraiki" (On the Buddha's Prophecy)
and "Nyosetsu Shugyo Sho" (On Practicing the Buddha's Teachings).

The Gohonzon

He also began at this time inscribing Gohonzon and "Odaimoku Tablets". He had had a vision of Fudo and Aizen as far back as 1253, and in his customary manner that immitated the example of "Snow Mountain Boy" [Sessen Doji] he had immediately written that vision into pictures and bequeathed them on a "new Buddha" -- or recent initiate into the Nichiren discipleship/priesthood. On his journey to Sado Island, while visiting Nichiro in Prison, he is said to have written the Odaimoku on an "Odaimoku" tablet created by Nichiro. This Tablet is preserved to this day in a temple preserved on the site. On Sado Island, he began to inscribe Gohonzon with the complete characteristics of his vision to all of his disciples. There are more than 120 of these still extent and he would be inscribing them until his death. Some of the Gohonzon were inscribed for "all mankind." His persecutions convinced him of the truth of his message, gave him a vision of the "ultimate" as embodied theoretically in the sixteenth chapter, and as he came to see it in his heart and this confirmed that he was on the right path. This meant that he was figuratively fulfilling the role of Bodhisattva Jogyo by acting as the "votary" of the Lotus Sutra. It is those actions that in turn identify him with the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law not as a fully formed Buddha, but as a "Buddha in the making. In one Gosho he likened Buddhahood to the yolk in a living Egg. His Buddhism would be known as the Buddhism of "Sowing." He seems to have been clearly able to differentiate between literal and figurative understandings -- referring to them under the category "General and specific" (So and Betsu). He now knew (was convinced -- had faith) that enlightenment was certain for himself and those who followed him. His surety that the Lotus Sutra was the correct teaching for the latter day was such that he advocated that people practice it exclusively. For more on these varied subjects visit these pages:

Issues In Buddhism and gohonzon.html

Debates and Conversions on Sado

During his time on Sado, Nichiren also convinced a number of people living there to chant the Daimoku. He thoroughly defeated the local monks in debate, and converted people who would receive many of his more controversial works such as "Abutsubo" who initially came to kill him, and Sairenbo-Nichijo, who received many works from him both while he was alive. Converting these people also gave him allies who would ameliorate his condition on the Island. Incidently the Gosho written to Abutsubo and Sairenbo are all in the "disputed" category. In the case of Abutsubo, the Gosho given to him may have simply not left the island until years later. In the case of Sairenbo, he was from Kyoto, was a learned Tendai Monk, and so was a convenient personae to address Gosho referring to Tendai Doctrines to. The Monks of the Kyoto area during the Muromachi period, could justify finding previously unknown works on that basis. Thus the works directed to Sairenbo may represent the opinions of Nichiren monks who lived after his lifetime and are sometimes considered "apocryphal by Nichiren purists. Since the Nichiren Temples in the Kyoto area were also destroyed periodically and so any "proof" has been destroyed -- we may never know for certain if Nichiren actually wrote those Gosho. Teachers of some Nichiren schools respond to this by posthumously branding the originators of such Gosho as evil persons and rejecting any Gosho with a whiff of controversy. Others accept that they have important things to teach even if they are the sense of later teachers. For more on this see my pages on:

Disputed Gosho and Apocrypha and my discussion of the Six Priests

During this time Nichiren also converted a number of the local Samurai "Lords" who were to play a role in later propagation efforts. There are a number of temples of the Nichiren Schools on Sado Island to this day. Nikko Shonin was supposedly there, and Niko known as "Sadobo." Nichiro came to visit and was sent back after nearly dying in the Snow, and because he would have been breaking a parole if he had stayed.

Pardon and Return

In February 1274, the government issued a pardon for the Daishonin, and he returned to Kamakura on March 26. On April 8, Hei no Saemon requested an interview, and asked the Daishonin in a deferential manner his opinion of the impending Mongol invasion. The Daishonin said that it would occur within the year and reiterated that this calamity was the result of slandering the True Law. On this occasion the government offered to build him a temple and place his sect of Buddhism on an equal footing with all other sects, but the Daishonin refused. This was his third remonstration with the government.

In October 1274, the Mongols launched a massive military attack against the southern islands of Iki and Tsushima and advanced to Kyushu. Japanese losses were staggering, but when the Mongol forces returned to their battleships at night, an unexpected storm arose and heavily damaged the Mongol fleet. The Mongols withdrew. In April of the next year, however, the Mongols sent an envoy threatening another invasion if the Japanese government did not acknowledge fealty to the Mongol Empire. The Japanese used no diplomacy at all and cut off their heads. Nichiren referred to this incident in an oblique criticism in which he said that they should not have beheaded the "innocent" Mongol Envoys, but would be better off beheading slander of the Dharma (correcting mistaken interpretations of Buddhism). His was a cutting sarcasm when he used it.

Criticisms of Esotericism

Somewhere around this point Nichiren's attention turned to the "Mikkyo" teachings of Kobo Daishi and to their influence on other teachers. Indeed at this point he starts referring to his teachings before his near beheading as being "Shakumon" to his teachings from that point on, largely because those teachings refrain from criticizing Shingon and Tendai. Nichiren was expecially hard on Jikaku Daishi The third successor to Dengyo Daishi (Saicho), whom had embraced the Mikkyo Teachings as "equal in principle but superior in terms of practice" to those of the Lotus Sutra. He was probably influenced by reading the "Ebyo Shu" and hearing the critiques that Dengyo had made of the approach of Kobo Daishi and Shingon to Buddhism. Dengyo Daishi had criticized the teachings of "Shingon" for disregarding even the posibilities of achieving Buddhahood through reliance on texts. This restricted the path of Buddhahood to those who had the time, access, and means, to spend in one on one "face to face" transmittals between a teacher and students. Nichiren's formal criticisms of Esoteric teachings, in similar manner to his criticisms of Honen, focused on their disregarding and "slandering" the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, but he also emphasized the importance of relying on original sources in transmitting and learning Buddhism. His criticisms may seem to have been something new, but they were really only following up on the teachings of Dengyo Daishi, whom also had criticized teachings and teachers who weren't fillial to original sources or who used other people's teachings without giving credit to them as the originators.

Throughout his life he read and researched Buddhism, but from the time he faced death at Tatsunokuchi on his writings began to show less concern with Zen and Nembutsu, and more concern with Tendai and Shingon. The mistakes of Zen and Nembutsu had been obvious, but those of Tendai and Shingon were far more subtle, and in one Gosho he restricts the refutation of them to "a person of wisdom" because of the difficulties of doing it right. In "The Embankments of Faith" he writes:

"However, slander can be either minor or serious, and there are times when we should overlook it rather than attack it. The adherents of the Tendai and Shingon sects slander the Lotus Sutra and should be refuted. But without great wisdom it is very difficult to differentiate correctly between their doctrines and the teaching which Nichiren expounds. Therefore, at times, you might be well advised to refrain from attacking them, just as I did in the Rissho Ankoku Ron."

This was a matter of both "scope" and also a matter of timeliness. He himself often signed himself as a disciple of Dengyo Daishi, therefore his criticisms of Tendai were "internal." He also had been trained in a Tendai-Shingon Temple, and so any criticisms of esotericism had to be framed from an "insider understanding." His criticisms had to fit within the Tendai Frame which he had inherited and affirmed as part of his own training. Thus his critique of Shingon, Tendai, and Zen focused on it's shifting it's focus from being firmly centered on the Lotus Sutra, to being focused on Tantric esoteric wisdom. And he had to use his sources with great care, careful logic, and proper citations. Unlike someone who was teaching something totally knew he couldn't simply share his own insights and say "this is the truth." For this reason his critiques of Shingon and Tendai often hinged on fine points of doctrine. Even Honen praised the Lotus Sutra in some of his writings, and so he had to always face people who would say "but he didn't mean it that way" or words to that effect.

Even so, even Dengyo himself had condemned esoteric teachings late in life as being elitist and ignoring the universal salvation promised in the Lotus Sutra. And Dengyo's own disciples had turned their backs on these teachings. Nichiren was essentially taking up where Dengyo's Ebyo Shu had left off. And Nichiren understood these things with an insiders perspective. Indeed in some senses he was as much a "reformer" of Tendai as he was teaching something new, and that was to cause trouble for his disciples after his death.

the Kaimoku Sho he says that such teachers make the following mistake:

The Maka shikan says: "If one lacks faith [in the Lotus Sutra], one will object that it pertains to the lofty realm of the sages, something far beyond the capacity of one�s own wisdom to comprehend. If one lacks wisdom, one will become puffed up with arrogance and will claim to be the equal of the Buddha." Kaimoku Sho

For more on this see
The six priests story

The Debate that never came/
Retirement to Minobu

Nichiren came back from Sado Island with renewed confidence and a determined attitude to prove his teachings. Perhaps he expected to finally have that debate on Buddhism with the Tendai and Shingon monks. At any rate no one would debate him, but they would sometimes debate his disciples. In each case they lost. He intended to "refute" Tendai and Shingon as part of a debate, and that is why he saved Gosho containing severe criticisms of Shingon and Tendai for extremes(see Six priests page for more). For instance he wrote a letter called "Petition for Yoritomo" that he never intended delivered on his disciple Shijo Kingo's behalf. That disciple was told to save that petition and to only present it in the case of the most dire emergency. Nichiren still fully intended to make his case in a debate before the Emperor and or Shogun, and had confidence that his diciples would be able and willing to do so. Indeed the incident that sparked Nichiren needing to write his petition was a debate which had been won by his disciple Sanmibo

However, the government, while offering him Temples and land if he would cease attacking the confusion in Buddhism, continued its reliance on the Shingon sect and other Buddhist teachings. Convinced that he had done all he could to warn the nation's leaders, the Daishonin now turned his efforts toward ensuring the correct transmission of his teachings to posterity. In keeping with an old maxim that a sage who warns his sovereign three times and is not heeded should withdraw to a mountain forest, he left Kamakura and went to live in a small hermitage in the wilderness of . There he gave lectures on the Lotus Sutra and devoted himself to training his disciples. He also wrote several important documents including the "Hokke Shuyo Sho" (The Essentials of the Lotus Sutra), "Senji Sho" (The Selection of the Time) and "Hoon Sho" (Repaying Debts of Gratitude). He wrote "Repaying Debts of Gratitude" out of the affection he held for his mentor, Dozenbo. He also wrote smaller and lesser Gosho to his disciples such as this one Written about Mt. Minobu itself. He seems to have refined his views at this point.

The Next Generation emerges

During this period, while the Daishonin was busy at Minobu teaching and writing letters, his disciples each assumed an active leadership in the propagation activities, Nikko concentrated his efforts in Kai, Izu and Suruga provinces.

Each of the others concentrated on other parts of the country, expecially continuing efforts in Kamakura. These efforts were rewarded with a number of converts among both the priesthood and laity.

As the number of new believers increased, so did official pressures. Unfortunately for the group, earlier persecutions had also resulted in the defection of some of Nichiren's leading disciples. One of them "Shofu-bo" had been the very person whom had struck Nichiren in the face during the earlier Tatsunokuchi persecution and the burning of Nichiren's Matsubagayatsu hut. Persecution now shifted from being aimed at Nichiren himself, to being aimed at his disciples and ordinary members. Each of his main disciples would face some sort of persecution. The Ikegami Brothers, with their father. Shijo Kingo with his lord Emma, and the most important of these all. The Atsuhara persecution.

Atsuhara Persecution

In Atsuhara Village of the Fuji area, believers were subjected to a series of threats and harassments known collectively as the Atsuhara Persecution. Strangely this persecution, involved both Nichiren's aging nemesis, Hei no Saemon, and these former disciples. Even more strangely it was to be directly seminal in both the later split between Nikko and the other 5 senior disciples, and in The facts of the persecutions are preserved in several legal and literary documents. But how those facts would be fitted into the narrative of events would be handed down differently.

Talking according to the traditions of Nichiren Shoshu one of my sources says:

A series of threats and acts of violence directed against followers of Nichiren Daishonin in Atsuhara Village in Fuji District of Suruga Province over a period of three years, beginning in 1278. Around 1275, after the Daishonin had retired to Mt. Minobu, propagation efforts in Fuji District began to advance rapidly under the leadership of Nikko Shonin [assisted by Niko Shonin and local leaders such as Nanjo Tokimitsu]. At Ryusen-ji, a Tendai temple in Atsuhara, Nikko Shonin converted several young priests, who in turn converted a number of laymen.

Alarmed at the rapid defection of his parishioners, rather than acceding to demands for a debate, Gyochi, the deputy chief priest of the temple, demanded that the priests Nisshu, Nichiben and Nichizen, who had converted and been renamed, as well as the priest Mikawa-bo Raien, who had also taken faith, write an oath to discard their faith in the Lotus Sutra and begin reciting the Amida Sutra again. Only Mikawa-bo agreed. Gyochi then ordered the other three to leave the temple.

Nichizen returned to his home, but the other two remained and redoubled their propagation efforts. Having failed to shake the conviction of of these priests, Gyochi turned his attention to the lay believers. He encouraged the samurai Ota Chikamasa, Nagasaki Tokisuna and others who had been the Daishonin's followers to renounce their faith and persuaded them to join forces with him in intimidating believers among the peasantry. In April of 1279, Shiro, a follower of the Daishonin, was attacked and injured during an archery contest at a local shrine, and in August another believer named Yashiro was beheaded for unknown reasons. On September 21, twenty farmers, all believers, were helping to harvest the rice crop from Nisshu's and Nichiben's private fields. They were arrested while working there on false charges of stealing rice from fields belonging to Ryusen-ji.

The facts agree, that the core event of the Atsuhara persecution was when the frustrated authorities rounded up and killed peasants in Atsuhara village.

Gyochi had sent them sent to Kamakura for trial, where their case was presided over by the deputy chief of the Office of Military and Police Affairs, Hei no Saemon. Ignoring an urgent appeal on their behalf by Nichiren Daishonin and Nikko Shonin, he had them incarcerated at his private residence, where he tried to torture them into recanting. However, not one of them yielded. Eventually, he beheaded three of them--the brothers Jinshiro, Yagoro and Yarokuro. The date of their execution is thought to have been October 15. The other seventeen were sentenced to be banished from Atsuhara.

What the narrative leaves out, is that tactically the Atsuhara persecution represented a defeat for Nichiren's disciples. They had intended to bring about a local debate with Gyochi, which he being an ignorant Nembutsu believer and a barely lettered person who was more warrior/samurai than monk, they would surely have won. The bringing of charges and trials of the believers represented the frustration of that dream. By arguing within the Tendai Tradition they could have won their case that Nichiren's teachings were orthodox from the point of view of consistancy with those of Saicho/Dengyo. The authorities knew this and that is why they changed the terms of the debate. Along with the lay-believers. Nikko Shonin lost his temple as well. After 1279, Nikko, of all the senior disciples of Nichiren would be the only one without his own Temple.

Dai Gohonzon and Atsuhara

Nichiren Shoshu following its interpretation of the teachings of the Fuji School usually maintains at this point that this was the moment when Nichiren claimed to have fulfilled the purpose of his advent:

This incident marked the first time that offical persecution of this magnitude had been directly leveled at the Daishonin's followers, rather than the Daishonin Himself. The Daishonin, seeing that a number of believers were now willing to give their lives to protect the Law, decided that the time had come to inscribe the Dai-Gohonzon, which He did on October 12, 1279, fulfilling the purpose of His advent6.

There is no doubt that that persecution was a watershed for Nichiren's efforts. First it marked the first time that his disciples, expecially laymen, had been the primary targets of a persecution. A letter to Shijo Kingo dated (On the Persecutions befalling the Buddha) around this time says that he had "fulfilled his advent" and this is the justification for this doctrine. There is a lot of controversy over whether this in fact is what Nichiren was referring to, but it was fulfillment of the reasons why Nichiren had retired to Minobu. He had left Kamakura in order to make sure that the next generation fully understood his teachings and that his disciples were fully in control of propagation efforts. In one letter he also praises "Hokibo and Sadobo" for their Itai Doshin in dealing with the affair. He felt assured that his disciples were of the same mind as he was and would accomplish the noble goal of Kosenrufu. Sadobo was Niko Shonin.

The Death of Sanmibo

According to the Fuji School, as first recounted in modern times by the late Reverend Hori the other outcome of this persecution was the defection and then death of one of his leading disciples Sanmibo. After the Atsuhara Incident was over Nichiren writes:

There was something very strangeabout Sammi-bo. Nevertheless, I was concerned that any admonition would be taken by the ignorant as mere jealousy of his wisdom, and so I refrained from speaking out. In time his wicked ambition led to treachery and, finally,to his doom. If I had scolded him more strictly, he might have been saved. I have not mentioned this before because no one would have understood it. Even now the ignorant will say that I am speaking ill of the deceased. Nevertheless, I mention it so that others can use it as their mirror. I am sure that our opponents and the renegades are frightened by the fate of Sammi-bo

The above quote, more than any, illustrates the difficulty of taking these stories too literally. In studying the text, one finds that the version of this that is used in the Gosho Zenshu is different from that of the Nichiren Shoshu and Sokagakkai one. Fuji school legends recount that Sanmibo turned against the Daishonin during the Atsuhara Persecution. According to those legends he was under the control of Hei No Saemon, and he and the other former disciples plus Shofu-bo were put on horseback. According to the stories they were thrown from their horses and then subsequently died of something that resembled tetanus. Yet other Gosho, also dated, tell us that Sanmibo died across the Kanto Region in Toki Jonin's home town. And he died before Hei No Saemon made his famous trip to the Atsuhara region.

In discussing the text, a Japanese scholar told me that the reference to Sanmibo dying at Atsuhara and to "renegades" seemed to be an interpolation and that there was no such reference in the original. It appears that the version of this story used by the late High Priest Nichiko Hori is either different from the one that is available to other schools or was translated creatively. When I first heard this I was thinking that this was translation, but now I suspect that the Fuji School simply has a copy that was creatively copied by later monks in antiquity. Of course the original might have had that information and it been deleted out but the one that doesn't contain the reference is one that comes from scholars with no particular incentive to leave such information out, while the Fuji school would use Sanmibo's error and end as a model for their more generalized case. This story represents a story that was told in order to provide an model for later stories that depict the five elder priests in much the same vein.

Yet Sanmibo did die around that time. And Sanmibo had been a leading disciple. In previous struggles he'd been Nichiren's write hand man. For instance "Petition for Yoritomo" recounts him winning a debate on Nichiren's behalf two years before (in 1277) at Kuwagayatsu in Kamakura. Way back years earlier Nichiren had sent him to Kyoto to seek an audience and a great debate with the Emperor's sponsorship. In Kyoto he had been flattered and honored by the Courtiers of the court so much that he wrote a letter to Nichiren telling him of these things. Nichiren wrote back with a Gosho called the "Homon Mosarubeki Yo no Koto" which has the famous quote about the Emperor being a mere "Island chieftain" and warned Sanmibo as follows:

If a mouse becomes a bat, it is neither mouse nor bird. You are neither a country priest nor a Kyoto Priest and I think you are going the way of Shofu-bo.(see page on sanmibo)

Nikko and Nichiren's last days

Nichiren had relied indeed on Sanmibo extensively in his efforts. To loose him this way saddened him greatly and was a great blow to his efforts, expecially in Kamakura where Sanmibo had been the one who had received the most intense instruction and been relied on the most. This represented a passing of generations not just for Nichiren's own, but of his own first generation of disciples. One doesn't get any sense of rejoicing in what he says after his death. And this death in 1279 preceded his own by only a few years. His senior monks were aging. Nissho had trouble coming to visit. The younger monks were increasingly the ones actually doing the travelling and shakubuku. And these young monks would deify Nichiren in much the same way that Nichiren depicts the founders of the schools he criticized as being deified. Perhaps he warned of this in his lectures.

So indeed Sanmibo had "gotten an "evil mind" and came to an evil end. As Nichiren writes. And Nichiren had, years before, warned him of such evil tendancies. But the reason this Gosho became important to the Fuji School, is that the seeds for a future schism were probably being planted at Atsuhara. All five of the senior priests who we have mentioned so far had managed to either get a temple built for them by family, or to win a temple through debate. The only place in the far flung Kanto region (area around present day Tokyo) that hadn't had a successful debate was Mt. Fuji. And the only one who hadn't an independent base of operation in 1982 was Nikko Shonin. Nikko Shonin was the man in charge of Minobu on a de-facto basis. And from near the end of the Atsuhara persecution to Nichiren's death, it was Nikko who was able to be at his side the most. The other disciples were also present, but not nearly so often. During this time no schism was evident and everyone was working together.

Being Ill

In the last years of his life Nichiren's health began to fail. Always precarious, you see references to his health as an issue from the moment he retired to Minobu. A lifetime of struggle and exertion, coupled with his keeping to a strictly vegetarian diet and therefore frequently subsisting on starvation rations -- led to him being ill with what was probably an intestinal disease or even cancer. His disciple Shijo Kingo constantly ministered to him, and he thanks him as a "sage" on a number of occassions consequently. In the "General Stone Tiger" Gosho he writes:

I am not as healthy as others, and inaddition, I dwell in this remote moun-tain forest. This year was especially difficult, with widespread epidemics and famine in spring and summer, which worsened in autumn and winter. Mysickness grew worse again, too, but yougave me various medicines and a quilt-ed robe. Thanks to your remedies, Iimproved steadily; I have now recovered and feel much better than before.

Still he was worn out. And Shijo Kingo was getting old as well. He couldn't be at his side all the time, and Nichiren probably had stomach cancer by this time.

Last Journey

Subsequently, his health began to fail. Sensing that his death was near, On September 8, he left Minobu at the urging of his disciples to visit the hot springs of Hitachi. He was accompanied by all of his disciples except Niko and Nitcho on this last journey. Finally too weak to travel further he stopped at the home of his disciple Ikegami Munenaka, who had survived troubles with his own father through the good advice of the Daishonin.

At the House of Ikegami Munenaka

It was at the house of Ikegami Munenaka, that according to the Fuji school(This is disputed by the other schools), he designated Nikko Shonin as his specific successor (in a transfer document dated September 1282 -- but that may have been really written much later since this document is seen as apocryphal again)footnote. Instead, Daniel Montgomery tells us that his last recorded Gosho was a letter to lord Hakiri in which he asked about the well being of a horse.

During those last days he is supposed to have said a number of things. For instance, according to Minobu legends, orally charging one of his acolytes, a certain Nichizo, who happened to be the half brother of Nichiro(and one of Nichiro's disciples) with propagation in Kyoto, and (On October 8) appointing six elder disciples to carry on propagation after his death. Since a number of priests had also been charged with travelling to Kyoto, including; the late Shofu-bo, the legendary Sairenbo, Sanmibo, and Nichimoku Shonin himself (a second tier direct disciple who was also a direct disciple of Nikko Shonin's), this story may or may not be true, but also represents how later disciples groped for legitimacy by claiming a direct connection with Nichiren himself -- often through a story about something involving a direct disciple of Nichiren's. This would lead to issues within Nichirenism itself, and later conflicts that would resemble those that Nichiren himself wrote about so eloquently in works like the Ho'on Sho.

Succession

He designated, Six Senior Disciples (Roku Roso) to carry on his work after his death.

These six were:
Nissho (1221-1323),
Nichiro (1245-1320),
Nikko (1246-1333),
Niko (1253-1314),
Nitcho (1252-1317),
and Nichiji (1250-1305?).

He passed away that morning, in the company of these disciples, other direct disciples and lay believers. When he passed away he was chanting the daimoku with a Written Gohonzon in the posture set by Shakyamuni for entering Nirvana. That last Gohonzon is still extent to this day. You can see it at Don Rosses site here Shutei Mandala, it is also the one that Nichiren Shu gives copies of to its members.

Further Readings:

For more on Nichiren and issues around his Buddhism you can follow the following links:
Intrasite on Nichirenism
sixpriests.html, Lord Hakiri, and each of the above links for individual priests.
Nikko Shonin and the The Fuji School; also,Nichiren Shoshu.html,>Sokagakkai
Nichirenism and other schools of Nichiren Buddhism
Outside this site:
Sencho Murano on the history of Nichiren Shu(note how Senchu Murano plays up oral and literal evidence that supports the claims of Nichiren Shu and downplays those of Nichiren Shoshu)
Kubota of "Kempon Hokke Shu?" on Nichiren:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bridge/7743/lifenichiren.html
dt>Lamont/Kubota's version of his story:
Official page was here:
http://www.kemponhokke.com/
But can still be found here;
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bridge/7743/kubotanichirenpass.html
"Official" Honmon Butsuryu Shu:
Don't see a page on Nichiren's biography (must have been moved)
These links are very graphic:
"http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~shibuken/Nichiren/index.htm
SGI/NST:
http://www.garyrossproductions.com/samples/uhfs/uhfschap.pdf
http://www.ezlink.com/~dozer/fc_sgi/bios/lifenich.htm
Others:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hw8m-mrkm/nonch/people/nichiren.html
This biography also has lovely pictures:
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~shibuken/Nichiren/index.htm
These views are somewhat academic:
Fascinating Article on Nichiren and the "Final Dharma Age"(Mappo):
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/547.pdf
This website is created by a Sociology Professor and has interesting things to say:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hw8m-mrkm/nonch/people/nichiren.html
These pages either discuss specific Nichiren Practitioners (the Sato Article) or talk about Nichiren "hagiographies."
http://www.iop.or.jp/0010s/sato.pdf
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/555.pdf
http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/Buddhism/IssuesInBuddhism/555.pdf

Footnotes

The material on this page comes from a number of sources. For a general list visit:
sources.html
  1. Daniel Montgomery's book "Fire in the Lotus," page 123.
  2. The Life of Nichiren Daishonin by Yasuji Kirimura.
  3. Quote from page 243 of Jaqueline Stone's book on "Original Enlightenment".
  4. Jacqueline Stone provides this quote from the "Zenmui Sanzo Sho." Much of the information on this page comes from her book. When I clean this page up again I'll get these footnotes in proper order.
  5. Reference to the monkeys is in "Fire in the Lotus" page 103.
  6. From: A Dictionary of Buddhist Terms and Concepts Nichiren Shoshu International Center(Tokyo) 1983 lst Ed. Pgs. 19-20

Hagiographies

Some of the Gosho attributed to Nichiren in which he describes his own accomplishments are probably, actually, the works of later teachers. There is some debate over whether, for instance, he was really saved by a blinding light at Tatsunokuchi, or whether it was a letter from the Bakufu that saved his life that night. The stories could be true, but they might not be. Hagiographies are often written about sacred figures, extolling and exaggerating their works. Nichiren deflates one such set of hagiographies about the founder of the Shingon Sect, Kobo Daishi, in his Ho'on Sho. (see apocryphal or disputed page)

index.htmlBack to main index | A page on the Gosho(major writings of Nichiren)

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