Nichiren

Nichiren (日蓮) (February 16, 1222 - October 13, 1282), born Zennichimaro (善日麿), later Zeshō-bō Renchō (是生房蓮長), and finally Nichiren (??), was a Buddhist monk of 13th century Japan. A controversial figure during his lifetime, he is founder of Nichiren Buddhism, a major Japanese Buddhist stream encompassing several schools of often widely conflicting doctrine.

Turning point

The following several years were marked by successful propagation activities in eastern Japan that generated more resentment among priests of other sects and the authorities. After one exchange with an influential priest called Ryōkan (良観), Nichiren was called in for questioning by the authorities in September 1271. He used this as an opportunity to address his second government remonstration to Hei no Saemon (平の左衛門, also called 平頼綱: Taira no Yoritsuna), a powerful police and military figure.

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Two days later, on September 12, Hei no Saemon and a group of soldiers abducted Nichiren from his hut at Matsubagayatsu, Kamakura. Their intent was to arrest and summarily behead him; but some sort of astronomical phenomena—a great flash of light—over the seaside Tatsunokuchi execution grounds terrified Nichiren's executioners into inaction. The incident is known by Nichiren Buddhists as the Tatsunokuchi Persecution and regarded by many of them as a turning point in Nichiren's lifetime called Hosshaku kempon (発迹顕本).

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Hosshaku kempon means "discarding the provisional and revealing the true": Nichiren, at this point, discarded his "provisional" identity as a mortal priest and began to reveal his "true" identity as the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Jōgyō (上行菩薩) or as the True Buddha (本仏: hombutsu), depending on which school's interpretation you accept.

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Unsure of what to do with Nichiren, Hei no Saemon eventually decided to banish him to Sado, an island in the Japan Sea known for its particularly severe winters and a place from which few returned.

Related Topics:
Sado - Japan Sea

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This exile, Nichiren's second, lasted about three years and, though harsh and in the long term detrimental to his health, represents one of the most important and productive segments of his lifetime of teaching. While on Sado, he won numerous staunch converts and wrote two of his most important doctrinal treatises, the Kaimoku Shō (開目抄: "On the opening of the eyes") and the Kanjin no Honzon Shō (観心本尊抄: "The object of devotion for observing the mind in the fifth five-hundred year period"), as well as numerous letters and minor treatises whose content contains critical components of his whole teaching.

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It was also during his exile on Sado, in 1272, that he inscribed the first Gohonzon (御本尊), the mandala that he intended as a graphic representation (or, in some schools, as the very embodiment) of the essence of the Lotus Sutra—Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, or the "Mystic Law" of cause and effect that underlies all phenomena in the universe (see Nam Myoho Renge Kyo).

Related Topics:
''Gohonzon'' (御本尊) - Mandala - Lotus Sutra - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

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Nichiren was pardoned in February 1274 and returned to Kamakura in late March. He was again interviewed by Hei no Saemon, who now was interested in extracting information from him about a feared invasion by the Mongols: The appearance of several Mongol messengers demanding Japan's fealty had spooked the authorities into believing that Nichiren's prophecy of foreign invasion was about to materialize (which it did in October; see Mongol Invasions of Japan). Nichiren, however, used the audience as yet another opportunity to remonstrate with the government.

Related Topics:
1274 - Mongol Invasions of Japan

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