Letter to Shimoyama（2nd of 6th paragraph）

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Moreover, during another seven days [of their extended prayer period] these winds continued without stop, while not a drop of rain fell. What does this mean?

Letter to Shimoyama（2nd of 6th paragraph）

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The prayers for rain conducted by the priest Two Fires were to begin on the eighteenth day of the sixth month in the eighth year of the Bun’ei era [1271] and last until the twenty-fourth day of the same month. At that time I sent a messenger to Gokuraku-ji temple, making clear that he came from one who had caused the priest many sighs in recent years. “If within the space of seven days you can make it rain even once, then I will become your disciple and will undertake to uphold all the two hundred and fifty precepts,” I stated. “Moreover, I will acknowledge that my condemnation of the Nembutsu as a practice that leads to the hell of incessant suffering is based on an erroneous interpretation. And if I myself submit to you, my disciples will of course do likewise, as will almost all the people of Japan.”

During the course of the seven days, I three times sent messengers to convey these words to him. But what could have gone wrong? Not only did not a drop of rain fall, but all the eight kinds of winds, roaring winds, howling winds, whirling winds, violent winds, raged without cease throughout the twenty-four hours of the day and night. Moreover, during another seven days [of their extended prayer period] these winds continued without stop, while not a drop of rain fell.

What does this mean? Izumi Shikibu was a licentious woman and the priest Nōin disregarded the precepts,26 yet both, by writing poems in the thirty-one syllable form that the priest Two Fires deplores, were able to make rain fall. And that great thieving bandit of India, by reciting the words “Hail to the Buddha,” managed to steal the gold head of the image of the heavenly god.27

Yet this priest Two Fires and his disciples, several hundred persons abiding by the two hundred and fifty precepts and performing big and little ceremonies of the True Word and Lotus schools, proved less effective with their Buddhist prayers than did a licentious woman with her wanton poem or a great thief with his invocation of “Hail to the Buddha!” Is this not strange?

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Background

One of Nichiren Daishonin’s ten major writings, Letter to Shimoyama is a petition to Shimoyama Hyōgo Gorō Mitsumoto, the steward of the district of Shimoyama near Mount Minobu in the province of Kai. The Daishonin wrote it on behalf of a priest named Inaba-bō Nichiei in the sixth month of 1277, while residing at Mount Minobu.

Inaba-bō Nichiei had been converted by Nikkō to the Daishonin’s teachings, and tried to convert Shimoyama Mitsumoto, who was Inaba-bō’s father (or, according to another account, his lord in the feudal system of the time). But Shimoyama, who was a believer in the Nembutsu, or Pure Land, teachings, furiously opposed the priest’s new-found faith. Hearing this, the Daishonin wrote a petition on behalf of Inaba-bō to persuade Shimoyama to discard the Pure Land teachings and take faith in the Lotus Sutra.

The petition explains the superiority of the Lotus Sutra to the Pure Land doctrines, and states that Inaba-bō’s conversion to the Lotus Sutra constitutes a distinguished act of loyalty to Shimoyama. Later, Shimoyama in fact gave up the Nembutsu and became a follower of the Daishonin’s teachings.

In the beginning paragraphs, the voice is that of Inaba-bō addressing his angry father or lord, Shimoyama. Inaba-bō explains that he has ceased reciting the Amida Sutra and instead taken up recitation of the Lotus Sutra because of an encounter with the Sage Nichiren. He says he went to Mount Minobu to listen to a lecture by the sage without the intention of taking faith. He writes very briefly of what he felt about the lecture.

The letter then outlines the Daishonin’s lecture from a third-party viewpoint. The lecture first introduces the five guides of propagation, the teaching, the time, the people’s capacity, the country, and the proper sequence of propagation. Then it describes the history of the spread of Buddhism in Japan. This begins with the Chinese priest Chien-chen (known in Japan as Ganjin), who brought the Hinayana precepts and T’ien-t’ai’s teachings to Japan but propagated only the former, which he thought were appropriate to the time. Later Dengyō appeared and studied T’ien-t’ai’s teachings and investigated thoroughly the doctrines of the six schools of Nara, demonstrating the superiority of the former over the latter. Dengyō also asserted that the Hinayana precepts should be abolished and replaced with the Mahayana precepts.

Next, the Daishonin describes the spread of Buddhism during the Former, Middle, and Latter Days of the Law. The Buddhist leaders in the first two periods knew the great Law of the Lotus Sutra but did not expound it because the time had not yet come for its propagation. As the Daishonin points out, the Latter Day is the time for the advent of Bodhisattva Superior Practices, who will spread the essence of the Lotus Sutra, which is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Then the Daishonin refutes the views of Ryōkan, who attempted to restore the Hinayana precepts and who urged the shogunate to put to death his rival, Nichiren Daishonin. Basing his view on the Lotus Sutra, the Daishonin regards Ryōkan as the third of the three powerful enemies and himself as the votary of the sutra. He also describes the other persecutions he experienced.

He points out the errors of the shogunate and the Buddhist schools it supported, the Pure Land, True Word, and Zen schools. Moreover, he describes how Dengyō’s teachings were distorted by his successors, Jikaku and Chishō, who incorporated True Word teachings into the Tendai school. In addition, he asserts that the Pure Land and Zen schools have turned the people away from the Lotus Sutra. As a result of these errors, the three calamities and seven disasters have occurred.

The Daishonin explains that he submitted his work On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land to Hōjō Tokiyori, the retired regent and de facto leader of the shogunate, to identify the basic cause for these calamities. Not only was his advice unheeded, however, but he was subjected to various persecutions. Finally, without carrying out a full investigation, the shogunate exiled him to Sado Island. Because the internal strife he had predicted took place, he was pardoned from exile and summoned to an interview with Hei no Saemon, a powerful official of the shogunate. Hei no Saemon asked him when the Mongols would attack Japan, referring to another of the Daishonin’s prophecies. The Daishonin replied that it would occur within the year and warned Hei no Saemon that mistaken Buddhist teachings should not be relied on for prayers to protect the nation. When his admonitions went unheeded, he retired to Mount Minobu. Thus at this time the country appeared to be on the verge of ruin.

At the end of the letter, the voice returns to that of Inaba-bō Nichiei. He says that the Sage Nichiren regretted the turn events had taken, expressing great pity for the people. He says he himself has written down here only a part of the lecture, and urges Shimoyama to take faith in the sage’s teachings. He expresses his conviction that, in discarding the Nembutsu and embracing the Lotus Sutra, he had the happiness of his parents in mind, and is therefore exercising the highest form of filial piety.

Notes

26. Izumi Shikibu (fl. c. 1000) was a court lady-in-waiting, and Nōin (b. 988), a poet-priest, whose works include poems that express prayers for rain.

27. The source of this statement is based on a passage in The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.

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