The Ryūsen-ji Petition Chapter2
Shakyamuni Buddha, the World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment, foreseeing the inevitable era of conflict that would occur in the Latter Day of the Law,7 described and left behind a secret technique for dealing with the great disasters that would be faced then. This is made perfectly clear in the sutra passages.8
However, during the more than 2,220 years after the passing of the Thus Come One, this secret was not yet propagated in India, China, Japan, or any of the other countries of the continent of Jambudvīpa. Thus the four ranks of bodhisattvas, though they understood it in their minds, did not expound it. T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō likewise did not discourse on it, for they knew that the time to do so had not yet come.
The Lotus Sutra states, “In the last five-hundred-year period you must spread it abroad widely throughout Jambudvīpa.”9 The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai said, “In the last five–hundred-year period [the mystic way will spread and benefit humankind far into the future].”10 Miao-lo said, “The fifth five hundred years . . .”11 And the Great Teacher Dengyō said: “Speaking of the age, [the propagation of the true teaching will begin] in the age when the Middle Day of the Law ends and the Latter Day opens. Regarding the land, it will begin in a land to the east of T’ang and to the west of Katsu. As for the people, it will spread among people stained by the five impurities who live in a time of conflict.”12 This passage clearly indicates that the east will be victorious and the west will suffer defeat.
This sage, the lord of the Law, understands the time, understands the country, understands the teaching, and understands the people’s capacity. For the sake of the ruler, for the sake of the people, for the sake of the gods, and for the sake of the Buddhas, he has pondered and set forth the steps to be taken in dealing with these calamities and disasters.
Not only is his advice not heeded, however, but in addition, because of the invidious words of persons who would slander the Law, the sage has suffered an injury to his head, his left hand has been broken,13 and he has twice been condemned to exile in a distant region. His disciples in many different places have been shot to death with arrows, cut down with swords, killed otherwise, wounded with swords, imprisoned, exiled, beaten, expelled, or subjected to abuse in severe persecutions too numerous to describe.
Because of these actions, the entire nation of Japan has made itself the archenemy of the Lotus Sutra, and its myriad inhabitants have all become persons of incorrigible disbelief. And as a result the heavenly deities have abandoned the nation, the earthly deities have taken their leave, and there is no longer any peace in the realm.
This is the state of affairs as it has been conveyed to us. And though we are lacking in ability, we offer this document, unworthy as it may be, for consideration. A non-Buddhist text says, “If evil persons are present at court, the worthy cannot advance.”14 And a Buddhist work states, “If even a good monk sees someone destroying the teaching and fails to reproach him, . . . then that monk is betraying the Buddha’s teaching.”15
Background
This document from the priests Nisshū and Nichiben was submitted to the legal court of the Kamakura government in the tenth month of 1279. Later, it was titled The Ryūsen-ji Petition, but recent consideration of the format and content shows it is not a petition but a letter of vindication submitted to the government.
Nichiren Daishonin reviewed a draft of the document written by Toki Jōnin and revised it, substantially adding to the first part. The first half refers to matters of doctrine and the latter to details of fact.
This document was written during the Atsuhara Persecution. The Atsuhara Persecution refers to a series of oppressive acts and threats against followers of the Daishonin in Atsuhara Village of Fuji District, Suruga Province, that spanned nearly three years and culminated in the execution of three believers on the fifteenth day of the tenth month in 1279 (on the eighth day of the fourth month in 1280 by another account).
Around 1275, after the Daishonin had taken up residence at Minobu, propagation of his teachings began to progress substantially in the Fuji area under Nikkō’s leadership. At Ryūsen-ji, a temple of the Tendai school in Atsuhara, Nikkō converted several of the younger priests—including Shimotsuke-bō, Echigo-bō, and Shō-bō—who became the Daishonin’s disciples and took the names Nisshū, Nichiben, and Nichizen respectively. And these priests converted a number of local farmers. Alarmed at the p.828defection of the priests and lay supporters, Gyōchi, a lay priest and a member of the ruling Hōjō clan who acted as the deputy chief priest of the temple, used his connections with the authorities to suppress their activities and expel the converted priests from the temple. Hence the Daishonin oversaw the completion of the document to be submitted by Nisshū and Nichiben.
The text addresses the complaint Gyōchi has filed against them, countering his false charges. The complaint raises two major points and the text of the document can be divided into two parts accordingly.
The first part refers to the fact that the two calamities—revolt within one’s own domain and invasion from foreign lands—which the Daishonin had prophesized in his 1260 treatise On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, have in fact come to pass, and asserts that the Daishonin should be regarded as a sage to whom the leadership should turn for the means to protect the nation. Then it points out the futility of True Word prayers conducted for the defeat of the Mongol forces, citing precedents from history. This part ends with the refutation of the provisional sutras, in particular the Amida Sutra.
The latter portion of the document seeks to expose the falsehood of the charges lodged by Gyōchi that a number of armed persons broke into his compound, reaped the rice crop, and carried it off to the compound occupied by Nisshū. In addition, it cites specific examples of Gyōchi’s unpriestly and criminal behavior such as instigating murder and hunting. Lastly, it calls on the authorities to make careful investigation of the charges in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings and the legal codes, and to dismiss Gyōchi from his position and allow Nisshū and Nichiben to occupy their assigned quarters. Such just actions in support of the practitioners of the correct teaching, it says, will bring peace and security to the country.
Notes
7. This refers to “the age of quarrels and disputes,” the last of the five five-hundred-year periods following Shakyamuni’s death, which are described in the Great Collection Sutra. It corresponds to the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law. In the sutra, Shakyamuni says that in the last five hundred years quarrels and disputes will arise among the followers of his teachings, and that the pure Law will be obscured and lost.
8. The “sutra” here is the Lotus Sutra. For example, chapter five says, “Once these living beings have heard the Law, they will enjoy peace and security in their present existence and good circumstances in future existences” and chapter twenty-six says, “I will also shield and guard those who uphold this sutra, making certain that they suffer no decline or harm within the area of a hundred yojanas.”
10. The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.
11. On “The Words and Phrases.”
12. The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra. T’ang refers to China, and Katsu to a Tungusic nation that ruled over northeastern China and northern Korea in the sixth and seventh centuries. “A land to the east of T’ang and to the west of Katsu” indicates Japan according to old maps.
13. This refers to the Komatsubara Persecution of 1264, when the Daishonin and his party were attacked by the steward Tōjō Kagenobu. In the fight, a disciple was killed, and Kudō Yoshitaka died of the wounds he suffered. The next sentence refers to the Izu Exile from 1261 to 1263, and the Sado Exile from 1271 through 1274.
14. Source unknown.
15. A summary of a passage in the Nirvana Sutra.