A Warning against Begrudging One’s Fief

Background

This letter was written at Minobu, when the Daishonin was fifty-six years old, and sent to Shijō Kingo in Kamakura. Kingo served the Ema family, a branch of the ruling Hōjō clan, and was well versed in both medicine and the martial arts.

In the sixth month of 1277, Shijō Kingo attended a religious debate at Kuwagayatsu in Kamakura at which Sammi-bō, a disciple of the Daishonin, defeated Ryūzo-bō, a protégé of Ryōkan. Other retainers of Lord Ema, jealous of Kingo, reported falsely to the lord that Kingo had forcibly disrupted the debate. As a result, Lord Ema threatened to confiscate Kingo’s fief. When Kingo received an official letter from Lord Ema after the Kuwagayatsu Debate ordering him to write an oath forsaking his faith in the Lotus Sutra, he sent the letter to the Daishonin at Minobu, along with a letter of his own in which he pledged never to write such an oath.

Nichiren Daishonin wrote the present letter in reply to encourage Kingo and also sent him a petition addressed to Lord Ema in which he defended Kingo and praised the faithful service that he had rendered his lord. This petition is entitled The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto. (Yorimoto was part of Shijō Kingo’s full name.) Not long after that, Lord Ema fell ill. Eventually, he had no choice but to ask Kingo for help. He recovered under Kingo’s treatment and thereafter placed renewed trust in him. Later, Shijō Kingo received from him an estate three times larger than the one he already held.

In this letter, the Daishonin states, “However wretched a beggar you might become, never disgrace the Lotus Sutra,” and defines a basic attitude in faith: No matter what social position one occupies or adversity one faces, it is vital to continue in faith, never compromising one’s integrity as a votary of the Lotus Sutra.