Letter to YadoyaSaemon Mitsunori

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It is to be hoped that he will cease giving support to the temples and priests he has supported in the past and will put his faith in the Lotus Sutra.

Letter to YadoyaSaemon Mitsunori

Background

THE prophecies I made in my treatise, On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, which I wrote some years ago, have been fulfilled, and I accordingly wrote to the regent in regard to this fact.

In the first month of this year, the eighteenth day, an official announcement arrived from the western barbarians, the great Mongol Empire. In view of this fact, it appears that I, Nichiren, am in some sense a sage. Nevertheless, I have yet to receive any communication from the regent regarding this matter, and I am therefore respectfully submitting a second letter of warning. It is to be hoped that he will cease giving support to the temples and priests he has supported in the past and will put his faith in the Lotus Sutra. If he does not do so, it will be too late to regret the consequences later on.

I have written letters to this effect to eleven persons, and a discussion on the matter is certain to take place. I would like to express my hopes that at that time you will do all you can to help me realize my longstanding goals as rapidly as possible.

With regard to the eleven persons to whom I have sent letters, they are listed in my letter addressed to Hei no Saemon. I should perhaps explain my message in more detail, but since it is clearly written in the letter I am submitting to the regent, I will omit the details here.

I hope you will seek out a time when the regent is in a favorable mood and will take up this matter with him.

With my deep respect,

Nichiren

The eleventh day of the tenth month in the fifth year of Bun’ei [1268], cyclical sign tsuchinoe-tatsu

Respectfully presented to the lay priest Yadoya

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Background

One of eleven letters of remonstrance, this is addressed to the lay priest Yadoya Saemon Mitsunori. Two months previously, the Daishonin had written a private letter to Yadoya (p. 312) referring to the arrival of a letter from the Mongol nation and reminding him of the predictions he had made in 1260.

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