The Three Obstacles and Four Devils
Background
This letter was written to Hyōe no Sakan Munenaga, the younger of the two Ikegami brothers. Though it was originally thought to have been written in the first year of Kenji (1275), it is now apparent that it was written in 1277. Munenaga is thought to have taken faith in the Daishonin’s teaching around 1256, shortly after his elder brother Munenaka. Both were officials in the Kamakura shogunate, and their father, Yasumitsu, was director of the government’s Office of Construction and Repairs.
Yasumitsu was a loyal follower of the priest Ryōkan of the True Word Precepts school who was highly active in political affairs. He strenuously opposed their beliefs and disowned Munenaka twice, in 1275 and again in 1277. By disowning Munenaka, Yasumitsu in effect was provoking a rift between the two sons, tempting the weaker Munenaga to trade his beliefs for the right to inherit his father’s estate. Supported by the Daishonin’s guidance and encouragement, however, Munenaga upheld his faith together with his brother, and in 1278, after a total of twenty-two years’ practice, their united efforts finally led their father to accept faith in the Daishonin’s teaching.
Chapter1(Showing signs of the Latter Days of the Law)
THE two men you sent have arrived here, bringing your various offerings. I also heard that the priest Ben1 has written about your sincerity in his letter.
In this letter I want to advise you about what is most important for you. In the Former and Middle Days of the Law, the world did not fall into decline because sages and worthies appeared frequently, and the heavenly gods protected the people. In the Latter Day of the Law, however, people have become so greedy that strife rages incessantly between sovereign and subject, parent and child, elder and younger brother, and all the more so among people who are unrelated. When such conflict occurs, the gods abandon the country, and then the three calamities and seven disasters begin, until one, two, three, four, five, six, or seven suns appear in the sky.2 Plants and trees wither and die, large and small rivers dry up, the earth smolders like charcoal, and the sea becomes like boiling oil. Eventually flames fill the atmosphere, arising from the hell of incessant suffering and reaching the Brahmā heaven. Such is the devastation that will occur when the world reaches its final dissolution.
Everyone, regardless of rank or status, considers it natural for children to obey their father, for subjects to be loyal to their sovereign, and for disciples to follow their teacher. Recently, however, it appears that the people of our day, drunk with the wine of greed, anger, and foolishness, make it a rule to betray their sovereign, despise their parents, and scoff at their teachers. You should read again and again the previous letter3 in which I explained that one should of course obey one’s teacher, sovereign, and parents, but should they commit wrongs, admonishing them is in fact being loyal to them.
Notes
1. Ben is another name for Nisshō (1221–1323), one of the Daishonin’s six senior disciples. He devoted himself to propagation mainly in Kamakura.
2. The Benevolent Kings Sutra reads, “When two, three, four, or five suns appear at the same time, when the sun is eclipsed and loses its light . . . this is the first disaster.”
3. The previous letter refers to Letter to the Brothers dated the sixteenth day of the fourth month, 1275.