Letter to Shimoyama（4th of 13th paragraph）
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And the people in the world today act in precisely the same fashion as these men did. Because they look with contempt on Nichiren and pay honor to the priests of the other teachings, they are automatically acting as the mortal enemies of the Lotus Sutra, yet they fail to understand this. Actions such as theirs, which go against the proper methods of government, are viewed with wrath and enmity by Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, the four heavenly kings, and the dragon kings. Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions, who are emanations of Shakyamuni, the bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust particles of a thousand worlds who emerged from the earth, the bodhisattvas of the theoretical teaching and those from other lands, the two sages, the two heavenly deities,86 the ten demon daughters, and the goddess Mother of Demon Children—all these beings who guard and protect the Lotus Sutra will take possession of the worthy rulers of other nations and in that guise will punish the sovereign of our nation and bring about the downfall of the country, yet they fail to realize this.
If Heaven is truly intent upon meting out punishment, then although one were to surround this country of Japan with the Iron Encircling Mountains,87 cover it over with Mount Sumeru, and gather together the four heavenly kings from all the worlds in the ten directions and station them everywhere along our shores, so long as one acts as the enemy of the Lotus Sutra and commits fearful outrages such as taking the fifth scroll of the Lotus Sutra and striking Nichiren on the head with it88—Nichiren, the votary of the Lotus Sutra who is more precious than Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings—and unrolling and scattering all ten scrolls of the Lotus Sutra and trampling all over them, one can hardly hope to escape punishment either in this present life or in lives to come.
How can the Sun Goddess, Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, and the other deities who guard and protect Japan be expected to aid a country such as this? On the contrary, they will most likely make haste to inflict punishment upon it as quickly as possible so that they themselves will not be held guilty of a fault. Or are these guardian deities of Japan perhaps even at this moment being upbraided by the four heavenly kings for delaying their punishment? It is hard to know which is the case.
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Notes
86. The two sages are the bodhisattvas Medicine King and Brave Donor, and the two heavenly deities are Upholder of the Nation and Hearer of Many Teachings, two of the four heavenly kings. In chapter twenty-six of the Lotus Sutra, they vow to protect the sutra’s practitioners.
87. The outermost of eight concentric circular mountain ranges said to surround Mount Sumeru located at the center of the world, according to the ancient Indian worldview.
88. The scroll of the fifth volume of the Lotus Sutra contains four chapters, twelve through fifteen. Among them, chapter thirteen predicts that those who propagate the sutra after Shakyamuni Buddha’s death will be attacked with swords and staves. When the Daishonin was beaten with the fifth scroll (wound on a heavy wooden dowel or staff) of the Lotus Sutra just before the attempt to behead him known as the Tatsunokuchi Persecution, he regarded it as a fulfillment of this prediction.