Nichiren Daishonin—His Lifelong Vow and Great Compassion

Its length, comprising almost 30 pages in the new edition of the Nichiren Daishonin gosho zenshu (The Complete Works of Nichiren Daishonin), suggests the degree of effort Nichiren put into it. 

Ryokan Matches the Lotus Sutra’s Prediction of an Evil Priest

In the letter, Nichiren affirms that as a votary of the Lotus Sutra, just as the sutra predicts, he has called forth enemies who aim to stop him from spreading the correct teaching. He emphasizes that Ryokan, the chief priest of Gokuraku-ji temple revered by influential people in government, was an “arrogant false sage,” the third of three types of enemies the Lotus Sutra describes. 

First, after explaining the five guides for propagation,^[3] Nichiren traces the history of the spread of Buddhism in Japan beginning with the Chinese priest known as Ganjin.^[4] He affirms that the superiority of the Lotus Sutra had been well established in Japan and asserts: “The way honest beginners should practice the Lotus Sutra is to devote themselves to the practice of the Lotus Sutra alone. Such persons are the true practitioners [of the sutra] who are honest” (WND-2, 687). 

Next, Nichiren says that we have now entered the Latter Day of the Law—an age that calls for the propagation of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra. At this time, Bodhisattva Superior Practices will make his appearance, and the signs of this were already evident. He criticizes the scholars of various schools for making self-serving claims despite this. In particular, he points out that Great Teacher Dengyo, at the end of the Middle Day of the Law, established an ordination platform on Mount Hiei for administering the precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment of the Lotus Sutra.^[5] Thereafter, the entire nation of Japan abandoned the Hinayana precepts.^[6]

Nichiren points out that Ryokan and priests of the Precepts school^[7] nevertheless took up the Hinayana teachings that had been cast aside, misled the members of the court and warrior families, and declared themselves to be teachers of the nation. Nichiren deems them to be “the most grossly untruthful men under heaven” (WND-2, 689).

He then points out the Nirvana Sutra’s prediction of the appearance of evil priests, which states, “There will be monks who will give the appearance of abiding by the rules of monastic discipline” (WND-2, 690). He concludes that Ryokan perfectly fits the description of such an evil monk and warns that, in accord with the sutra, people who have been deceived by Ryokan will suffer the defeat of their nation and fall into the hell of incessant suffering.       

What It Means to Be a Votary of the Lotus Sutra

Furthermore, Nichiren strictly denounces Kobo, the founder of the True Word school, and two leaders of the Tendai school, Jikaku and Chisho. Respectively the third and fifth chief priests of the school, Jikaku and Chisho distorted the teachings of Great Teacher Dengyo after his passing, claiming that the Mahavairochana Sutra is superior to the Lotus Sura. Jikaku interpreted a dream he had, in which he shot an arrow that struck the sun, as an auspicious omen testifying to the validity of his views. Nichiren, however, states to the contrary that the dream was an “omen foretelling that Japan would become a doomed nation” (WND-2, 698).

Even as the threat of invasion by the Mongol empire that Nichiren had warned of grew stronger, the people despised him while venerating priests of the established Buddhist schools. Consequently, he pointed out, they had become mortal enemies of the Lotus Sutra and of the heavenly gods and benevolent deities, which would lead to the downfall of the country. He states that by persecuting Nichiren, “the votary of the Lotus Sutra who is more precious than Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings” (WND-2, 710) and disparaging the Lotus Sutra, they will not be able to escape punishment. He also stresses that prayers offered by priests of the True Word teachings cannot avert a national crisis. 

After this, continuing to write as Nichiei, Nichiren states that his claims are reasonable and the way in which the authorities exiled him without taking the time to conduct a thorough examination was unacceptable. He then explains that Nichiei had stopped reciting the Amida Sutra for the sake of Shimoyama and his parents. He concludes the letter by admonishing Shimoyama to heed Nichiei’s advice. 

When Nichiren reveals that in the Latter Day of the Law he “is more precious than Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings,” he is expressing his awareness of his mission in life in the present time, the Latter Day. Regarding this, Ikeda Sensei writes:

This represents one of the most significant statements in Nichiren’s life and is the reason why “Letter to Shimoyama” is listed among his ten major writings.^[8] It goes without saying that no one honored Shakyamuni more highly than the Daishonin. Yet, when viewed in light of the challenge of propagating the Lotus Sutra in the latter age after the Buddha’s passing, the votary of the Lotus Sutra of the Latter Day of the Law was incredibly important. …

The Lotus Sutra is the teaching that enables the enlightenment of all people in the Latter Day of the Law. That means that the votary of the Lotus Sutra must be a person who has the courage to stand up all alone and keep working to spread the correct teaching, undeterred by persecution and other hardships, in this slanderous age that is characterized by quarrels and disputes. The presence of such a votary is key to opening the way to happiness for all humanity in the Latter Day.^[9]

This letter became the impetus for Shimoyama to become a follower of Nichiren. We also know that Nikko bestowed the Gohonzon on Shimoyama’s wife and child. 

The Kuwagayatsu Debate

In the sixth month of 1277, the same month Nichiren wrote “Letter to Shimoyama,” he also wrote “The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto” (WND-1, 803). As he had done for Nichiei, Nichiren wrote this letter on behalf of his lay follower Shijo Kingo^[10] in Kamakura and addressed it to Kingo’s lord Ema.^[11] Around this time, Kingo found himself in a difficult predicament.

On the ninth day of that month, Nichiren’s disciple Sammi-bo had visited Kingo. At the time Ryuzo-bo, a Tendai priest from Kyoto, was living in Kuwagayatsu^[12] in Kamakura. Ryuzo-bo was preaching day and night, and the people of Kamakura had come to revere him as they would Shakyamuni. While giving a sermon, Ryuzo-bo said, “If anyone among you has a question about the Buddhist teachings, please do not hesitate to ask” (WND-1, 803).

It was to that sermon that Sammi-bo invited Shijo Kingo, who, as a lay believer, observed in silence as Sammi-bo rigorously challenged and refuted Ryuzo-bo. This exchange came to be known as the Kuwagayatsu Debate.

A few weeks later, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, Kingo received an official letter from his feudal lord Ema. The letter charged that while Ryuzo-bo was preaching, Shijo Kingo had burst in with a group of people carrying weapons, disrupted the debate and intimidated him. Moreover, it said that Kingo had disrespected Ryokan and Ryuzo-bo, whom Ema revered, thereby disobeying his lord’s orders. Finally, the letter demanded that Kingo write an oath pledging to discard his faith in the Lotus Sutra.

On the one hand, Shijo Kingo’s fellow retainers had long been jealous of him. And on the other, Ema had become a follower of Ryokan and was fond of Ryuzo-bo. In these circumstances, those who felt hostility toward Kingo used the debate between Sammi-
bo and Ryuzo-bo to slander Kingo and make unfounded accusations about him to Ema. 

Kingo faced a tough decision: whether to carry through with his faith and lose his land and social status or, as Ema ordered, discard his faith in Nichiren Buddhism. In these most dire circumstances, Kingo valiantly chose to stay true to his faith. 

In addition to immediately reporting his predicament to Nichiren, Kingo wrote down his vow never to write an oath discarding his faith and sent it to Nichiren along with the official letter he had received from Ema. 

Along with his reply to Kingo’s report, Nichiren wrote this petition to Ema on Kingo’s behalf to submit in the event it was called for. That document, written in Kingo’s name, came to be known as “The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto.”

(To be continued in an upcoming issue.)

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Written Oath—A Vow to the Gods and Buddhas

In Nichiren Daishonin’s writings, the word kishomon or “written oath” appears many times. 

A written oath was a document in which one vowed to the gods and Buddhas to be truthful regarding one’s actions and statements. It also included a vow or promise made to the document’s recipient. The first part or preface, called maegaki, contained details of the writer’s vow. The following part, called shinmon (literally “god text”), listed the names of the gods and Buddhas to which the vow was being made. It constituted a declaration that if the writer did not uphold their vow, they could expect punishment from the gods and Buddhas they had listed. 

People in medieval Japan believed that the gods and Buddhas created the real world and controlled everything in it. People lived with a constant awareness of these beings, sensing they were being observed by them and seeking their counsel.

People believed that if they lied or failed to uphold the vow they had written, the gods and Buddhas listed in the oath would punish them. More than a prayer or verbal pledge to a god we might hear someone utter today, writing such an oath was a formal and serious matter upon which one staked one’s life. 

Discerning a Person’s True Nature

Ikeda Sensei: While this letter is in some ways an introduction to Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra, addressed to Shimoyama Mitsumoto in the voice of Nichiei, it also tells us that unless we know who is fulfilling the mission of the votary of the Lotus Sutra, struggling for the welfare of the people, we won’t understand the true meaning of Buddhism or the Lotus Sutra. That’s why the Daishonin pursues the crucial issue of clarifying the identity of the “arrogant false sages”—the third of the “three powerful enemies”^[13]—who oppose the votary of the Lotus Sutra, as well as the identity of that votary who has triggered the onslaughts of all three of these enemies.

In “Letter to Shimoyama,” the Daishonin points out the errors not only of the Pure Land (Nembutsu) teachings but also the Zen, True Word and Tendai schools in Japan, clearly refuting the misguided assertions of each. In particular, he devotes a large section of this letter to denouncing the True Word Precepts priest Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji temple in Kamakura. …

Nichiren Daishonin fiercely attacked the fundamental evil that deceives and confuses people about the truth. He did this in order to clarify who is spreading and practicing the correct teaching in exact accord with the Lotus Sutra, out of a wish to bring true happiness to the people. We need to build a society in which people can discern the true nature of those who make a pretense of saintly virtue and not be led astray by deception and falsehood. The only way to do this is to encourage each individual to elevate their own spiritual condition.^[14]

From the April 2025 Living Buddhism