The Reply to Hara dono
I have just carefully read your letter. The origin that has caused this situation is as follows. In November Mr. Nambu Yasaburo(*1) came to this temple in order to listen to the lecture on the teachings of this sutra. At that time he brought the lay priest's words(*2) that he wanted to ask the reason why believers in Nembutsu are doomed to the hell of incessant suffering and that he couldn't think that the benevolent deities who lend their protection aren't present in this country. I was very surprised to hear these words. I was caught by a sudden suspicion that the lay priest had changed his mind. The sage Nichiren told the three rulers(*3) of the Kamakura shogunate minutely in his remonstrative work(*4) that great or small benevolent deities have abandoned this country because of the slanders by Nembutsu, True Word, Zen and Precepts, and that therefore fierce demons came into the shrines which they left behind, and that the three calamities of famine, epidemics and the kingdom of the Mongols would continue in the land until it goes to ruin. I said that it was the very teaching Acharya Nichiren held in his mind. For the sake of the nation, for the sake of the Law, for the sake of all living beings Acharya Nichiren told it, as a messenger of the Buddha, with his great compassion and without begrudging his life.
Yasaburo answered, "I have believed that Nembutsu is the cause of falling into the hell of incessant suffering, but I can't yet clear up my doubt about the teaching that benevolent deities have abandoned this land. The disciple(*5) who is in Kamakura says that benevolent deities are guarding this country and we should pay a visit to their shrines. The disciple who is in Mt. Minobu firmly insists that deities are absent in this country. Acharya Nichiren has already passed away. Whom should we ask this question? How can we decide which side is right?" Yasaburo told his suspicion like this. I answered, "There is a means to decide who is right between two disciples. The teacher has passed away but we have his will. It is exactly Rissho Ankoku Ron. It is not a private document but was given to the three rulers of Kamakura shogunate." But he didn't seem to be satisfied with my words yet and went home.
The background of this meeting is as follows. I once heard that he was planning to pay a visit to the Mishima Shrine(*6). So one night I sent Echigobo(*7) to him with my words, "This teaching is what Ankoku Ron exactly means. Why do you break the Sage Nichiren's great vow? Don't you know it?" I made him give up his plan permanently like this. But the lay priest heard this and asked Acharya Mimbu(*8) about it. He answered that it was certainly said in Ankoku Ron that the benevolent deities left this country, but Acharya Byakuren(*9) read partially only non-Buddhist writings and didn't understand the ultimate. When an upholder of the Lotus Sutra pays a visit to a shrine, deities will come to meet him too. So you must pay a visit to shrines. The lay priest believed this firmly. When I, Nikko, visited the lay priest and made arguments with him, he said, as I had guessed, it was the very teaching of Acharya Mimbu. I, Byakuren, thought that this is already the invention of the heavenly devil. I fearlessly told him that Acharya Mimbu would turn against his teacher and commit the seven cardinal sins when he told that every time the teacher's disciple Acharya Mimbu pay a visit they will come back to see him. Because the teacher had told that the benevolent deities had abandoned this country and wouldn't return. If Acharya Mimbu would not change his thought and I, Nikko, would follow his idea, I could not escape the grave sin either. I said that we had immediately to banish the chief instructor of priests who was committing such a slander of the dharma.
At next, not long from this meeting, the lay priest made offering to build the tower of Fukushi(*10) in the district of Nambu. This is a very grave fault. On the whole for this twenty years and more, we haven't seen any traces of upholders of the precepts here but the lay priest's faith appears to have weakened somehow. This is because of Acharya Mimbu. For he is a priest who has a deep greed for the secular world, curries favor with others and is fawning and devious. He is a man who, far from establishing the Sage's teaching, would destroy it exceedingly. Thinking like this, I have watched him these two or three years. At times I warned him that his sermons were wrong and without any correct grounds, but he didn't listen to me. At the Taishi Ko (*11) in November of this year he offered a prayer "May the heaven last eternally. May the earth last perpetually. May the wish be realized(*12). May the wish of the ministers of the left and right be realized. May the wish of the hundred officials of the literary and the military be realized." I had told him many times not to offer the prayer for now. But he defied me saying why I didn't know the debt I owed to my country. So I, Nikko, didn't give the Mondo Ko(*13) this year.
This is not the only fault he made. A few people have drawn the image of the lord of teachings of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Shakyamuni Buddha enlightened from remote ages past which is the reason for Sage Nichiren's advent in this world. But no one has carved a wooden statue yet. The lay priest got an idea, "I want to do my bit to make a formal wooden statue of Shakyamuni." Acharya Mimbu gave him an unnecessary advice that he should make an wooden Buddha in the place of the one which Acharya Daikoku robbed. Since then he has clung to this idea. I, Nikko, told him that I dare not oppose him if he wanted to enshrine the Buddha which the late Sage had and enshrined(*14). The Buddha however didn't have the bodhisattvas like Superior Practices as attendants. It was only the one who attained enlightenment for the first time in this world. Moreover Acharya Daikoku has already stolen it. I said to him, "For what reason do you want a copy of the Buddha who attained enlightenment for the first time and evanescent. If it is beyond your ability, you should wait until someone appears among your ancestors and rightly builds one(*15). Until then you should enshrine the one which the Sage had built with letters. Why can you break so hastily the wooden statue (*16) of the lord of teachings of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo which is the reason for the Sage's advent in this world?" I told him like this strongly but he might think I was making light of him.
I, Nikko, as a disciple of the Sage, told thus to him because I highly regard him as an important person in Kai country which pays honor and follows the successors of the Sage. The spirit of the Sage may have come into me and made me act thus. I am praising myself for I have not fawned on him but admonished him as sutras instruct and the Sage told to do.
As a whole, there are three problems in this case. First, they broke Ankoku Ron's very intention. Second, the wooden image of the Thus Come One enlightened from remote ages past was broken in the first place(*17). Third, they gave alms to slanderers of the right teachings for the first time. I told the lay priest, "These are not the faults of you. They are entirely the mistakes of the fawning priest. So you should change your mind and from now on you should believe in the right teachings as Ankoku Ron tells and as you did for the twenty years while the Sage was alive . You should write a letter to promise sincerely to come back to the right teachings and should offer it to the Sage's statue.(*18)" But he did not believe in me and what is worse he seemed to think that I was making light of him. I heard later that he was saying he had chosen Acharya Mimbu Niko as his teacher. Hearing this I concluded that his belief in the Lotus Sutra had become reversed. The teachings of the Sage Nichiren is that for the inhabitants of the threefold world, the Thus Come One Shakyamuni is the very true teacher who makes them set their mind on enlightenment for the first time. If we abandon this true teacher and rely on Amida Buddha, we should become a person of the five cardinal sins and fall into the hell of incessant suffering. Isn't it his teaching? (If we neglect the teaching -- the translator inserted) for what reason can we tell that we believe in the Sage? Nikko is the teacher who has made people in Hakiri, high and low, set their mind on enlightenment. Thought I can't tell about people in the future of two or three generations from now, I think that everyone, high and low has not forgotten it yet.
I can't say how I am in disgrace and sorry about having got out of Minobu Sawa(*19). But when we think deeply, wherever we are, it seems to be the most important thing to succeed the Sage's true teachings and establishing them in the world. Even saying so to myself, I pondered a lot of things. The disciples all have gone against their teacher. Nikko is the only person that is holding the right teaching of the true teacher and will accomplish his original intention. I think thus and don't forget the true intention. And I am pleased that any of young men(*20) knows the correct teachings. I think if you take pains to visit the lay priest, he would not stray from the right path completely.
Acharya Mimbu's incorrect views are still strange to me. I heard that when he went down to Awa, he visited the lay priest and repetitively told that non-Buddhist writings were erroneous(*21). But the Sage's Ankoku Ron was written using non-Buddhist writings. The petition written in the eighth year of Bun-ei(*22) was also written using non-Buddhist writings. What is more, the Lotus Sutra was written by the person who knew the foreign books the best in China and it is told to have the most excellent sentences and words among the all collection of Buddhist scriptures. I am thinking we must have an expert of non-Buddhist writings to establish and spread our teachings. It seems difficult to bring peace to our country and establish the right teachings without great scholarship on both Buddhism and non-Buddhist knowledge. On the whole you should know about Acharya Mimbu's idea as it is and bring it to light.
Another unusual thing. He shut himself up in a little house which is in the residence of the lay priest Morooka(*23) from the first day of April of this year. He invited an painter and made him to draw a mandara on the eighth day of the same month. He said that it was the birthday of Buddha. Mimbu preached a sermon in the room of the lay priest all day. He received not only an offering but also enjoyed sake. The lay priest guessed his mind, he called his wife and children and offered sake to him. He drank so much and uttered a strange cry. All Morooka's family and retainers cast ridicule upon him. I can't explain how vexing to hear that. Nothing is more disgraceful to Nichiren than this. It is known to the public. Everybody knows it. I have kept it from the lay priest(*24) but now that such a thing happened, it is obvious why the Acharya cannot succeed the teachings of the great Sage. So I, Nikko, wrote this to inform you that I would abandon the Acharya. How can I hide the teachings of the sage because of the fear of a companion? The Acharya will surely tell at the sermon, "You were once a child that asked me about the meaning of a letter but now you criticize me."(*25) In the first place if you don't abandon the teacher who goes against the Sage Nichiren, it is rather an error of you. You should know this is Nichiren's teaching. Above all I am thinking how the statue(*26) is seeing over this matter. I cannot tell everything in my mind without seeing you face to face.
Nikko
the sixteenth day of the twelfth month
Reply respectfully sent to Hara Dono
PS. I brought volume three and volume ninety-two of Nirvana Sutra with me among my private things after I gave a lecture at Gosho(*27). They are the sutras which the Sage used, so I sent them back. The petition which was written when the disciples were ejected from Shijuku-in temple is at a shelf in the north side of Mido(*28). Will you please check and send it to me at your convenience? There is something I want to see in the petition. I will write to you about other things.
on The Reply To Hara dono -- by the translator
This letter was written by Nikko and sent to Hara dono on the sixteenth day of the twelfth month in the first year of Sho-ou (1288). It was written probably just after he left Minobu. He was forty-three years old. Not a long time had passed yet, only six years, since his teacher's death.
We don't have much information about Hara dono. Here 'dono' is a courtesy title used very generally those days. Hara is originally the name of the area to the north of the district of Hakiri. So the letter was given to someone who lived in the area. Hori Nichiko wrote "Hara dono may be an important person of Hakiri Sanenaga's family. He may be Nambu Yarokuro who was recorded in Deshi Buncho (this is the document Nikko made about his disciples -- the translator). Or he may be Kiyonaga. It was someone who left the district of Hakiri and lived around Mimaki in Hara to the north of Hakiri. But details are not known." (Fuji Nikko Shonin Shoden = The detailed biography of Nikko Shonin of Fuji).
SGI's "The Lecture on Nichiren Daishonin Gosho, the extra volume" says about Hara dono as follows. "It is said that Sanenaga had four sons, Jiro(Sanetsugu or Kiyonaga), Yasaburo(Saneuji or Ienaga), Saburo(Sukemitsu or Mitsutsune) and Yarokuro(Nagayoshi). Among them the fourth son Nagayoshi was the only person that could be called a young man('kindachi' -- the translator), as in this letter. So it is highly possible that Nagayoshi might have been called 'Hara dono'. But this is only a quess." We must however be more careful because the word 'kindachi' seems to be used to direct not a young man but young men in the letter.
The letter is difficult to read for a modern Japanese. One of the reasons of difficulty is the style of the writing of Nikko. Long sentences and a lot of omissions torment the translator. Another reason is that it is a private letter. We don't have a common background with the sender and the receiver, and we know very little about the latter. But the letter is important for studying the history of the Fuji group of Nichiren's sect because it tells the reason why Nikko had to leave Minobu which was his old supporter Hakiri's domain and where his teacher sleeps.
For the translation I used the source text contained in "The Lecture on Nichiren Daishonin gosho, the extra volume", Seikyo Shinbunsha,2003.
K.K
2005.11.29
2005.12.02 revised
footnotes:
(1) Nambu Yasaburo is assumed to be the second son of Hakiri Sanenaga. The assumption is based on "The Lecture on Daishonin Gosho the extra volume", Seikyo Shinbunsha, 2003. The book will be referred to as "The Lecture" hereafter. All the footnotes below are based on The Lecture if not otherwise specified.
(2) The person who is called "the lay priest" here is assumed to be Hakiri Sanenaga, the lay priest Nichien, Nikko's old supporter.
(3) Hojo Tokiyori, Hojo Nagatoki, Hojo Tokimune
(4) "Rissho ankoku ron"
(5) The disciples of Nichiren who were in Kamakura at that time were Nissho, Nichiro,etc. Niko (be careful!! Not Nikko) was also in Kamakura before but he had already come to Minobu when this letter was written. But Nikko seems to indicate Niko by "the disciple who is in Kamakura" in this letter. Perhaps Nikko wanted to indicate that Niko's idea was the same as that of the disciples in Kamakura.
(6) The Mishima Shrine is located in Mishima city, Shizuoka pref. In 1180, Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, offered a prayer for the victory against Heike. Since then the Kamakura Shogunate and its warriors worshiped it.
(7) Echigobo Nichiben was one of Nikko's direct disciples.
(8) Acharya Mimbu Niko.
(9) Acharya Byakuren Nikko.
(10) The tower of Fukushi was a stone tower built for Amida Buddha or Nembutsu faith located at Fukushi village in Yamanashi pref. It doesn't exists any more.
(11) The commemorative lecture meeting for the great teacher T'ien-t'ai was called "Taishi Ko." "Taishi" means 'a great teacher' and indicates T'ien-t'ai here, "Ko" means a lecture or a meeting for a lecture. "Taishi Ko" was held on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, i.e. T'ien-t'ai's deathday, every year. Nichiren himself started this lecture.
(12) "The wish" here means Emperor's wish. The prayer which Niko gave is the one for the peace and security of the nation. The Lecture tells, based on Hori Nichiko's book "the historical study of Nikko's departure from Mt.Minobu", such a prayer for the nation wasn't been given while Nichiren was alive and Niko broke the precedent.
(13) The Mondo Ko was a lecture in the form of Mondo i.e. questions and answers. It seems to have been held as a part of "Taishi Ko".
(14) "The Buddha which the late Sage had and enshrined" indicates the wooden statue of Buddha which Nichiren had received from Ito Hachiro-zaemon when he was exiled to Ito in Izu. Nichiren had the statue by his side through his life. He directed the disciples that they should put it at the side of his tomb after his death. But after Nichiren passed away Acharya Daikoku took away the statue.
(15) Here, Nikko seems to admit to build a wooden statue in the future. Perhaps he said so in order to make Hakiri give up his idea.
(16) "the wooden statue" cannot literally mean the Honzon written on paper. However,following the context, Nikko meant the Honzon written by Nichiren by this words.
(17) It is because Hakiri Sanenaga, one of the biggest supporter of Nichiren's sect, wanted a wooden statue of Buddha who attained enlightenment for the first time in this world.
(18) The statue of Nichiren. We know from this passage that there was a statue of Nichiren in Minobu at that time. But the details about it are unknown. The Lecture introduces a story about it from Nichikan's "Toke Sanne Sho(About our priest's three clothes)". It tells that Priest Nippo wanted to make a statue of Nichiren for people in the future. He made a four-inches-tall statue of Nichiren as a trial. Nichiren saw it and gave him a permission with a smile. So Nippo made a life-size statue. This story is connected with the building of the famous DaiGoHonzon of the second year of Koan in the document. But we don't have any reliable data to confirm the story.
(19) From these words we can guess Nikko wrote this letter after he left Minobu. But Japanese as a language doesn't have such a rigid sense of the tense as some of European languages do. So we can also translate this part of the text as follows. "I can't say how I am in disgrace and sorry about going out of Minobu Sawa." The Lecture doesn't give any definite comment on this point. However when we read the postscript of this letter together, we can judge that Nikko had already left Minobu and he was writing this letter somewhere else.
(20) The original Japanese word is 'kindachi'. And it is obvious that in the text he was mentioning more than one young man, because following the word, the pronoun 'izuremo' is used. The pronoun is used in Japanese when the free selection from more than one thing or person is possible.
(21) Nikko was well informed about non-Buddhist writings.
(22) Here the petition indicates the letter written to Hei-no-Saemon-no-jo Yoritsuna. Nichiren quoted the Chinese historian Shi-ba-sen's Shiki, Records of the Historian in the letter.
(23) The lay priest Morooka was a believer who lived in the district of Hakiri in Minobu. Hakiri is originally a place name. The details about him is unknown.
(24) Here the lay priest means Hakiri Sanenaga.
(25) This part of the letter is the most difficult to understand. In the original text the subject of the sentences was omitted. This happens very often in Japanese. So in the original text it is ambiguous like "
(26) see (18)
(27) Hakiri's residence. The Lecture interprets this word as Hara dono's house. But a scholar points out that the interpretation is doubtful. 'Go' is the Chinese letter that means in this usage 'belonging to someone important or respectable'. 'sho' is also the Chinese letter meaning 'a place'. So 'Gosho' means the residence of highly ranked people. For example, Japanese have called the Emperor's residence 'Gosho' for a long time. Nichiren himself referred to Hakiri's residence or Hakiri himself with this word in some letters. And in the letter we know the Nirvana Sutra which Nichiren used existed there. It isn't easily supposed that such important sutras existed in an place other than Hakiri's residence or the Kuonji temple. So the scholar says that it meant Hakiri's residence.
(28) 'Mido' seems to mean the hall of the Kuonji temple. 'Mi' is the same Chinese letter as 'Go' explained in (27). 'Do' is the Chinese letter that means 'a hall'. The Lecture interprets the word as the image hall attached to Hara dono's house. But the same scholar in (27) points out that this interpretation is doubtful,too. The document referred to here was the one written by Nikko under the Nichiren's direction and submitted to the Kamakura Shogunate. Perhaps Nikko had a copy of it with him. Thinking like this, it is somewhat strange that such an important official document existed in a young layman's house. Therefore 'Mido' should be interpreted as the hall of the Kuonji temple he had just left behind. If we interpret the word like this, we understand the reason why Nikko could point out the place of the document so closely as we read in this letter. We also know from this postscript how hastily Nikko left the Kuonji Temple in Minobu.