Nichiren (1222–1282)

Establishing Himself as the True “Practitioner of the Lotus”

There are no contemporary records about Nichiren, and information on his life has to be gleaned from his own writings, which abound in biographical details. In these works, he seemingly attempts over the years to construct his own identity as the only true interpreter of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren was born in Awa Province (Chiba), at that time a remote area of eastern Japan, in the year 1222, a crucial moment in Japanese history, when the military government had consolidated its power at the expense of the imperial court. In spite of the hagiographic narratives that stress his poor origins, his father may have been an official of the local manor, and Nichiren was in close contact with the military class from a young age. Among his followers would be many lower- and medium-rank samurai.

In 1233, Nichiren entered Kiyosumidera, a temple [Page 1088]close to his home village, where he was ordained at the age of sixteen. He spent the next twenty years traveling, to study at major Buddhist centers, first in Kamakura and then in the area of the capital Kyoto, at the temples of the Tendai school and of esoteric Buddhism.

Returning to his home temple in 1253, Nichiren supposedly proclaimed his belief in the exclusive superiority of the Lotus Sutra by invoking the title of this scripture, namu myohorengekyo, a practice that would become distinctive of his school and of all other movements inspired by him. This is considered the starting point of his “sect.” In fact, he continued to be interested in other forms of Buddhism, the esoteric traditions in particular, which were extremely popular in those times and which would color his distinctive interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. Yet in his autobiographical writings, he discounted this interest in order to draw the focus more sharply on his mission as the “practitioner of the Lotus” par excellence.

...