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Nichiren

This article is about the Japanese Buddhist priest. For the book, see Nichiren (book). For the film, see Nichiren (film).

Nichiren
日蓮
Nichiren Daishonin Hakii Portrait
Portrait from Kuon-ji Temple in Mount Minobu, Yamanashi prefecture, 15th century
Personal life
Born(1222-04-06)6 April 1222
Kominato village, Awa province, Japan
Died13 October 1282(1282-10-13) (aged 60)
Ikegami Daibo Hongyoji Temple, Musashi province, Japan
NationalityJapanese[1]
EducationKiyozumi-dera Temple (Seichō-ji), Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei
Other names
  • Dai-Nichiren (大日蓮,
    Nichiren the Great)    [2][3]
  • Nichiren Daishōnin (日蓮大聖人,
    Great Sage Nichiren)    [4][5]
  • Nichiren Shōnin (日蓮聖人,
    The Sage Nichiren)    [6]: 610 
  • Nichiren Dai-Bosatsu (日蓮大菩薩,
    Nichiren Great Bodhisattva)
Religious life
ReligionBuddhism
DenominationNichiren Buddhism
School
Lineage
Senior posting
TeacherDōzenbo of Seichō-ji Temple[8]: 442 

Nichiren (6 April 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. His teachings form the basis of Nichiren Buddhism, a unique branch of Japanese Mahayana Buddhism based on the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren[9]: 77 [10]: 1  declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhism and that it is the only sutra suited for the Age of Dharma Decline. He insisted that the sovereign of Japan and its people should support only this form of Buddhism and eradicate all others, or they would face social collapse and environmental disasters.[11] Nichiren advocated the faithful recitation of the title of the Lotus Sutra, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, as the only effective path to Buddhahood in this very life, a path which he saw as accessible to all people regardless of class, education or ability. Nichiren held that Shakyamuni and all other Buddhist deities were manifestations of the Original Eternal Buddha (本仏 Honbutsu) of the Lotus Sutra, which he equated with the Lotus Sutra itself and its title. He also declared that believers of the Sutra must propagate it even though this would lead to many difficulties and even persecution, which Nichiren understood as a way of "reading" the Lotus Sutra with one's very body. Nichiren believed that the spread of the Lotus Sutra teachings would lead to the creation of a pure buddhaland on earth.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Nichiren was a prolific writer and his biography, temperament, and the evolution of his beliefs has been gleaned primarily from his writings.[20]: 99 [8]: 442  He claimed to be the reincarnation of bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacāritra (Jōgyō),[21][22] and designated six senior disciples, which later led to much disagreement after his death. Nichiren's harsh critiques of the Buddhist establishment led to many persecutions against him and his followers. He was exiled twice and some of his followers were imprisoned or killed.[19] After his death, Nichiren’s followers continued to grow, making it one of Japan's largest Buddhist traditions.[19] He was posthumously bestowed the title Nichiren Dai-Bosatsu (日蓮大菩薩, Great Bodhisattva Nichiren) by the Emperor Go-Kōgon in 1358.[23] The title Risshō Daishi (立正大師, Great Teacher of Correction) was also later conferred by the Emperor Taishō in 1922.[24]

Nichiren Buddhism today includes more than forty different officially registered organizations, some of which have significant international presence. These include traditional temple schools such as Nichiren-shu sects and Nichiren Shōshū, as well as modern lay movements such as Soka Gakkai, Risshō Kōsei Kai, Reiyūkai, Kenshōkai, Honmon Butsuryū-shū, Kempon Hokke, and Shōshinkai among many others. Each group has varying views of Nichiren's teachings, some being more exclusivist than the others.[17][19] Some see Nichiren as being the Bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacāritra, while other sects claim that Nichiren was actually the Primordial or "True Buddha" (本仏, Honbutsu).[25][26][27][28]

  1. ^ Yamamine, Jun (1952). Nichiren Daishōnin to sono oshie: Nichiren and his doctrine. Kōfukan, University of Michigan.
  2. ^ Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (2003). Dai Nichiren ten: rikkyō kaishū 750-nen kinen. Sankei Shinbunsha. OCLC 52227561.
  3. ^ 大日蓮出版. 日蓮正宗の専門書を扱う大日蓮出版. Dainichiren Publishing Co., Ltd. 2013. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Daishonin". The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  5. ^ Nichiren (1990). Yampolsky, Philip B. (ed.). Selected writings of Nichiren. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 456. ISBN 0-231-07260-0. OCLC 21035153.
  6. ^ Petzold, Bruno; Hanayama, Shinshō (1995). Ichimura, Shōhei (ed.). The classification of Buddhism = Bukkyō kyōhan: comprising the classification of Buddhist doctrines in India, China and Japan 1873–1949. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03373-8. OCLC 34220855.
  7. ^ Bloom, Alfred. "Understanding the Social and Religious Meaning of Nichiren". Shin DharmaNet. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  8. ^ a b Stone, Jacqueline I. (1999). "REVIEW ARTICLE: Biographical Studies of Nichiren" (PDF). Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 26/3–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  9. ^ Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (2016). The Lotus Sūtra: a biography. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-8334-9. OCLC 959534116. Among all of the preachers of the dharma of the Lotus Sutra over the past two thousand years, there has been no one like Nichiren. In the long history of the sutra in Japan, he is the most famous—and the most infamous.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rodd1978 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ H. Byron Earhart (31 October 2013). "Value Creation Society (Sōka Gakkai)". In Huffman, James L. (ed.). Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Routledge. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-135-63490-2. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2020. Buddhism and the state have always been closely allied in Japan. Nichiren insisted, however, that the Lotus Sutra was the only true Buddhism, that the state should support only this form of Buddhism, and that it should abolish all other Buddhist sects as heretical.
  12. ^ Rodd, Laurel Rasplica (1995). Ian Philip, McGreal (ed.). Great thinkers of the Eastern world: the major thinkers and the philosophical and religious classics of China, India, Japan, Korea, and the world of Islam (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 327. ISBN 0-06-270085-5. OCLC 30623569.
  13. ^ Jack Arden Christensen, Nichiren: Leader of Buddhist Reformation in Japan, Jain Pub, page 48, ISBN 0-87573-086-8
  14. ^ Stone, Jacqueline (Spring 2006). "The Final Word: An Interview with Jacqueline Stone". Tricycle.
  15. ^ Stone, Jaqueline (2003). "Nichiren". In Buswell, Robert E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Vol. II. New York: Macmillan Reference Library. p. 594. ISBN 0-02-865718-7.
  16. ^ Shuxian Liu; Robert Elliott Allinson (1988). Harmony and Strife: Contemporary Perspectives, East & West. The Chinese University Press. ISBN 962-201-412-7.
  17. ^ a b "Nichiren Buddhism". About.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  18. ^ Habito, Ruben L. F. (2005). "Altruism in Japanese Religions: The Case of Nichiren Buddhism". In Neusner, Jacob; Chilton, Bruce (eds.). Altruism in World Religions. Georgetown University Press. pp. 141–143. ISBN 1-58901-235-6. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  19. ^ a b c d Stone, Jacqueline (29 May 2020), "Nichiren", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-575, ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8, retrieved 10 April 2025
  20. ^ Iida, Shotara (1987). "Nichiren 700 years later". In W., Nicholls (ed.). Modernity and religion. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-0-88920-154-5. OCLC 244765387.
  21. ^ Writings of Nichiren Shonin: Doctrine 1. University of Hawaii Press. 2003. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-8248-2733-5. Realizing himself to be an avatar of Jōgyō Boddhisattva, Nichiren strived to spread the Lotus Sutra.
  22. ^ Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. International Institute for the Study of Religions. 1994. p. 314. The Lotus Sutra states that this person would be a reincarnation of Jogyo bosatsu, a status that Nichiren did, in fact, claim for himself on numerous occasions.
  23. ^ Matsunaga, Daigan.; Matsunage, Alicia (1974). Foundation of Japanese Buddhism. Los Angeles: Buddhist Books International. p. 156. ISBN 0-914910-25-6. OCLC 1121328.
  24. ^ Eliot, Charles (1935). Sansom, George Bailey (ed.). Japanese Buddhism 1862–1931. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. p. 421. ISBN 0-7007-0263-6. OCLC 28567705. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  25. ^ Neusner, Jacob, ed. (2009). World religions in America: an introduction (4th ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-61164-047-2. OCLC 810933354. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  26. ^ "Original Buddha". Nichiren Buddhism Library. Soka Gakkai. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  27. ^ "True Buddha". Nichiren Buddhism Library. Soka Gakkai. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  28. ^ "Latter Day of the Law". Nichiren Buddhism Library. Soka Gakkai. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2018.

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