On Meeting with the Late Lay Priest of Saimyō-ji
CITING various temples, and stating that the people had been led to abandon their support of the temples of the older schools throughout Japan [and change their allegiance to the newly established schools]. This had been caused by the heavenly devil. All this I explained when I met with the late lay priest of Saimyō-ji. And I also referred to my work On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land. In sum, the Zen school and the Nembutsu school throughout Japan . . .
Background
The text preceding and following this fragment of a letter is missing, but one view suggests that Nichiren Daishonin wrote it in Kamakura in 1269. The Daishonin refers to the contents of a meeting he had with the lay priest of Saimyō-ji, Hōjō Tokiyori, the retired regent who until his death in 1263 was the effective leader of the Kamakura shogunate. This fragment refers to the refutation of the Zen school, whose teaching the Daishonin regards as the work of the heavenly devil. Tokiyori built Kenchō-ji temple in Kamakura and had Dōryū, a Zen priest from China, preside over it. This fragment contains the only reference among all the Daishonin’s writings of his meeting with Hōjō Tokiyori.