Rulers of the Land of the Gods

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I am delighted to think that, trusting in what is written in the sutra, I am living in the fifth five-hundred-year period, when we may expect to see the widespread propagation of the Lotus Sutra. But I grieve that this is a period when “quarrels and disputes will arise” and this nation of ours will follow the path of the asuras, the path of anger and contention.

Rulers of the Land of the Gods

 

Background

IF we consider the matter carefully, we find that Japan is also known by the name Mizuho-no-kuni [Land of Vigorous Rice Stalks], as Yamato,1 as Akitsushima [Dragonfly Island], and as Fusō [Sun Tree]. Made up of sixty-six provinces and two islands, it contains a total of sixty-eight provinces. It is over three thousand ri from east to west and of undetermined length from north to south.

Among the various provinces are the five provinces of the capital region and those that make up the seven circuits or marches.

The five provinces of the capital region are Yamashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, and Settsu. The seven circuits are the fifteen provinces of Tōkaidō, the eight provinces of Tōsandō, the seven provinces of Hokurikudō, the eight provinces of San’indō, the eight provinces of San’yōdō, the six provinces of Nankaidō, and the eleven provinces of Saikaidō, which is also known as Chinzei or Dazaifu.2 These are the provinces of the land.

Coming now to the sovereigns of the land, we find that in the age of the gods there were twelve reigns, those of seven heavenly deities and five earth deities. The first of the seven heavenly deities was Kuni-no-tokotachi-no-mikoto and the seventh was a couple, Izanagi-no-mikoto, the husband, and Izanami-no-mikoto, his wife. The first of the five earth deities was Amaterasu Ōmikami, or the Sun Goddess of the Grand Shrine at Ise, who was the daughter of the deities Izanagi and Izanami. The fifth of the five earth deities was Hiko-nagisa-takeugaya-fukiaezu-no-mikoto. He was the son of the fourth earth deity, Hiko-hohodemi-no-mikoto; his mother was the daughter of a dragon. These are the five reigns of the earth deities, which with the earlier reigns make up the twelve reigns of the age of the gods.

As for the human sovereigns, there have been perhaps a hundred reigns. The first of the human rulers was Emperor Jimmu, who was the son of Hiko-nagisa. Skipping now, we come to the fourteenth ruler, Emperor Chūai (the father of Hachiman), the fifteenth ruler, Empress Jingū (the mother of Hachiman), and the sixteenth ruler, Emperor Ōjin, son of Chūai and Jingū, who is now known as Great Bodhisattva Hachiman. The line continues down to the twenty-ninth ruler, Emperor Senka. Up to this time, though the teaching of the Buddha already existed in India and China, it had not yet been introduced to Japan.

The thirtieth ruler, Emperor Kimmei, was the son and heir of the twenty-seventh ruler, Emperor Keitai; he ruled for thirty-two years. On the thirteenth day (cyclical sign kanoto-tori) of the tenth month of the thirteenth year of his reign (the year with the cyclical sign mizunoe-saru [552]), King Syŏngmyŏng, ruler of the kingdom of Paekche, presented to the Japanese court a gilt-bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha. It is the image that at present is known throughout Japan by all people, high and low alike, as Amida Buddha.

The memorial accompanying it reads: “Your servant has heard that, of all the ten thousand doctrines, the doctrine of the Buddha is the finest. In dealing with worldly affairs as well, the Buddhist doctrine is most superior. Your Imperial Majesty too should practice it. Therefore with all due respect I have entrusted to my envoy this Buddhist image, the sacred writings, and Buddhist teachers, and present them herewith. I urge Your Majesty to put faith in them.”

During the thirty and more years that made up the reigns of the three rulers, Emperors Kimmei, Bidatsu, and Yōmei, however, no reverence was paid to Buddhism. Among the various things that happened during that period, there were strange and unusual occurrences in the heavens and on earth much like those we see in our own time, though those we witness today are far worse by comparison.

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If by some remote chance it should be true that I, Nichiren, am the votary of the Lotus Sutra, then in their next existence the people of this country of Japan are destined to the hell of incessant suffering. And during their present existence they will see their nation overthrown and seized by invaders from another country, as happened to Emperors Hui-tsung and Ch’in-tsung in China and was said to have been the fate of King Udayana and King Krita of India. And the other people of the nation will without doubt be stricken with white leprosy or black leprosy or various other grave maladies.

If, however, that does not happen, I, Nichiren, am not in fact the votary of the Lotus Sutra. Then in my present existence I will suffer from white leprosy or black leprosy or other grave maladies, and in my next existence will, like Devadatta and Kokālika, fall into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering.

When an asura demon shot arrows at the sun and moon, they turned around in midair and pierced him in the eye. When dogs bark at the lion, king of beasts, their own bellies burst open.28 King Virūdhaka, who killed members of the Buddha’s Shākya tribe, was swallowed up in a great fire in the midst of the river. Devadatta, who wounded the Buddha and caused him to bleed, was burned by the flames of the Avīchi hell while still alive. Moriya, who burned the gilt-bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, was felled by the arrows of the four heavenly kings. The lay priest Taira no Kiyomori, who burned down Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji temples, while still in his present existence was stricken with a disease that burned up his body.29

All these people committed serious offenses, but these are small in comparison to what has been done to Nichiren. If they suffered such a fate because of their small offenses, what immediate punishment must await those who have committed the great offense [of persecuting Nichiren]?

I am delighted to think that, trusting in what is written in the sutra, I am living in the fifth five-hundred-year period, when we may expect to see the widespread propagation of the Lotus Sutra. But I grieve that this is a period when “quarrels and disputes will arise”30 and this nation of ours will follow the path of the asuras, the path of anger and contention.

The lay priest Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, leaders of the Taira and Minamoto clans respectively, have from the first fought one another like so many dogs and monkeys.31 Because the Tairas attacked Yoritomo, a man of lower station and little good fortune, in the end the entire clan of the lay priest, the sworn enemies of the Minamotos, were destroyed. And on top of that the ruler, Emperor Antoku, who was guilty of no offense, was doomed to drown in the western sea, a most pitiful event.

And I, Nichiren, the envoy of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, of Many Treasures Buddha, and the Buddhas of the ten directions, though guilty of not the slightest secular offense, have not only been forced to face the enmity of the entire population of the country, but in addition have twice been condemned to exile, and have been paraded through the streets of Kamakura in broad daylight as though I were an enemy of the state.

And on another occasion the little retreat where I was living, where I had enshrined a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha as the object of devotion, and where I stored the texts of the various sutras, was attacked and destroyed, and the statue of the Buddha and sutra texts were not only trampled upon, but thrown into the mud and filth. And a scroll of the Lotus Sutra, which I had placed in the breast of my robe, was snatched forth and I was mercilessly beaten over the head with it. These heinous crimes were carried out not because of any ancient enmity harbored against me or because of any offense I had recently committed, but solely because I worked to propagate the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren turns his face to the heavens and pronounces these words: Examining the “Introduction” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, I see that Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, the four heavenly kings, the dragon kings and asuras, the various beings of the two worlds and the eight groups, and the gods of countless different lands gathered together [on Eagle Peak]. And when they heard the Buddha declare that the Lotus Sutra is supreme among the sutras he has preached, now preaches, and will preach, they vowed that they too, like the boy Snow Mountains, would offer up their bodies, and, like Bodhisattva Medicine King, were prepared to burn their arms in the service of the Buddha. At that time, when Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, in the presence of Many Treasures Buddha and the Buddhas of the ten directions, exhorted each of them, saying, “Now in the presence of the Buddha let him come forward and speak his vow,”32 the members of the three assemblies at two places, as though propelled by a favorable wind, spoke in unison in a loud voice, declaring, “We will respectfully carry out all these things just as the World-Honored One has commanded.”33

But what now has become of that vow? So long as it was in the presence of the Buddha, the vow was freely spoken. But since Many Treasures Buddha and the Buddhas of the ten directions returned to their original lands and Shakyamuni Buddha passed into extinction, much time has gone by, and now, though in this latter age and in a faraway country there is a votary of the Lotus Sutra, it would seem that Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, and the others have forgotten their vow and will not protect and guard him.

If so, then I must breathe a sigh of sadness. Since time began, like a pheasant before hawks, like a frog before a snake, like a mouse before a cat, or like a monkey before dogs, I have suffered trials such as these. Ours is a world of dreams, and perhaps I have simply been duped by the Buddha, the bodhisattvas, and the heavenly deities.

But the greatest source of sadness to me is the thought that if Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, the four heavenly kings, and the others should abandon the votary of the Lotus Sutra, who chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, now when he is in great distress, they will in their present existence lose their status as heavenly beings, the fruit of past endeavor, and, like petals scattering in a high wind or rain falling from the sky, will fall into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering; for, as the sutra predicts, “When his life comes to an end he will enter the Avīchi hell.”34 This is what I find truly pitiful.

Though these beings should enlist the aid of all the Buddhas of the three existences and the ten directions and deny they have any knowledge of the matter, I will hold them strictly accountable. And if the Buddha is not entirely prejudiced in their favor, I know he will surely condemn Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, and the four heavenly kings to the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering. If they fear my glance, then let them make haste and fulfill the vow they took in the presence of the Buddha. Nichiren’s mouth [text missing].

I have received one tub of barley, two thousand coins, and one bag each of wakame seaweed and kachime seaweed. I have also received one paper bag each of dried boiled rice and parched rice. I ought to write more to thank you for your kindness, but I have already written at such length about the Buddhist teachings that I will stop here. These are matters of grave concern, so do not spread word of them to anyone other than Nichiren’s followers.

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Background

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this work at Minobu in 1275. It is not clear exactly to whom it is addressed. He opens with mention of the various names of the country of Japan, and the various provinces, marches, and islands that compose it. He then points out that Japan has always been considered to be a “land of the gods,” a country protected by an assortment of tutelary deities. He states that, when Buddhism was transmitted to Japan, Japan became foremost among the eighty thousand nations believed to compose Jambudvīpa in terms of the protection it receives from the gods and Buddhas.

But the Daishonin raises the question of the downfall of the ruling Taira clan and the death by drowning of Emperor Antoku (1178–1185), whose maternal grandfather was Taira no Kiyomori, the head of the Taira clan and Grand Minister of State. This occurred despite all sorts of prayers offered by the eminent priests of the True Word doctrine for the victory of the Taira over the Minamoto clan.

Then he cites the event known as the Jōkyū Disturbance, named after the Jōkyū era (1219–1222) when it occurred. This was an attempt by the Retired Emperor Gotoba to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate, established by the Minamoto clan and now ruled by the Hōjō clan. His attempted coup was quickly put down by the forces of Hōjō Yoshitoki, and Gotoba and his coconspirators, Juntoku and Tsuchimikado, both retired emperors, were exiled respectively to the island of Oki, the island of Sado, and the province of Tosa (later to the province of Awa in Shikoku). Emperor Chūkyō, a son of Juntoku, was dethroned after less than eighty days’ reign. The Daishonin states that these sovereigns had all relied on the priests of the True Word doctrine for their prayers for the defeat of enemies.

Why was it, then, that those sovereigns who should have been protected by the gods and Buddhas, despite prayers by the eminent priests, could meet such untoward fates? The Daishonin, born one year after the Jōkyū Disturbance, grew up among lingering popular dismay over this unprecedented event. He had since his childhood sought to understand its basic cause and had arrived at the conclusion that it lay in belief in erroneous Buddhist teachings and opposition to the correct teaching, the Lotus Sutra. He points out that offering prayers based upon the erroneous doctrines of True Word invited retribution in the form of the downfall of the Taira clan and the exile of the retired emperors.

The Daishonin had been urging the people of Japan, as well as the regent of the Kamakura shogunate, to abandon the True Word and other misguided doctrines and to take faith in the Lotus Sutra. But neither the rulers nor the people paid him any heed, responding instead by attacking and persecuting him. In the end, he sternly rebukes the various gods and deities, indicating that they should fulfill the vow they made in the presence of the Buddha to protect the votary of the Lotus Sutra.

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Notes

1. An ancient name for Nara Prefecture, “Yamato” was later also used to refer to the entire country of Japan. The actual origin and meaning of the name are unclear.

2. The eleven provinces of Saikaidō are present-day Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost major island. The term “Dazaifu” originally referred to a local headquarters of the government established in Kyushu to regulate contacts with the China mainland and for defensive purposes. In the present context, it refers to the area of the eleven provinces of Saikaidō.

28. Source unknown.

29. According to The Tale of the Heike, which chronicles the Taira clan’s rise and fall from power, Kiyomori died of an extremely high fever in the second intercalary month of 1181, only a few months after burning down these temples.

30. Great Collection Sutra.

31. The expression “dogs and monkeys” in Japanese corresponds to “cats and dogs” in English.

32. Lotus Sutra, chap. 11.

33. Ibid., chap. 22.

34. Ibid., chap. 3.

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