Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter8

These grave offenses continue to pile up until we have cases like that of the eighty-second sovereign, known as the Retired Emperor of Oki, and the Retired Emperor of Sado.¹⁵ Not only was their power wrested from them by Yoshitoki of Kamakura in Sagami Province, whose family had not even been among their retainers in generations past, but they were banished to their respective islands, where they were left to lament. In time they died in their island exiles and their souls turned into angry ghosts and fell into the region of hell.

The great ministers and other officials who served under them had their heads cut off or perished in water or fire, their wives and children worried themselves to death, or their wives became the wives of commoners. Over fifty years have passed since then, and their descendents are treated like members of the common people.

All of this came about because they put their trust in the True Word and Nembutsu teachings and acted as implacable enemies of the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha. Because they did so, they were cast aside by the Sun Goddess, Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, and the other deities of heaven and earth, and by the three treasures of Buddhism in the ten directions. While alive, they were attacked by those who should have been their followers, and after death, they fell into hell.