Letter to Tahō-ji

Letter to Tahō-ji

Background

IWONDER if you have had an opportunity to read On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, the work that I presented some time ago to the late lay priest of Saimyō-ji. If so, you will observe that I am able to foresee events before they take place. Already, in the first month of this year, an official letter has arrived from the Mongol nation. Are you not greatly alarmed? I am deeply perplexed by the situation. Even though you may despise Nichiren as a person, since my predictions have proved correct, surely you ought to heed my advice.

All of you should gather in one place at the earliest opportunity to discuss this matter. If you fail to heed my warning, you will in your present existence bring about the destruction of the nation and in your next existence will without doubt fall into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering.

I have written letters dealing with this matter and sent them to various persons. I do not speak out of merely private or prejudiced motives, and I trust that your answer will afford me an opportunity to explain the situation in detail.

Words do not fully express what is in the heart, and writing does not fully express what is in words. Therefore I will omit further discussion here.

With my deep respect,

Nichiren

The eleventh day of the tenth month in the fifth year of Bun’ei [1268]

Respectfully presented to the attendant of Tahō-ji

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Background

One of eleven letters of remonstrance, this was sent to Tahō-ji temple in Kamakura. In The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto, recounting the details of the priest Ryōkan’s prayer for rain, the Daishonin wrote, “When no sign of rain appeared after four or five days, he grew frantic and summoned hundreds of his disciples from Tahō-ji temple to join him” (I, p. 808). From this it would appear that when the Daishonin addressed this letter to the temple in 1268, Tahō-ji was connected in some way to Ryōkan. The name of Tahō-ji’s chief priest is unknown.

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