This letter was written at Minobu in the eighth month of the first year of Kenji (1275) to the lay nun Myōshin, a believer who lived in Nishiyama in Fuji District of Suruga Province. It explains that the Gohonzon is “the essence of the Lotus Sutra and the eye of all the scriptures.” The Gohonzon, or mandala, embodies the reality of the three thousand realms in a single moment of life implicit in the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Thus, the Gohonzon is the “essence of the Lotus...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter to Sairen-bō Nichijō while at Ichinosawa on Sado Island in the fifth month of the tenth year of Bun’ei (1273). For some reason Sairen-bō was also in exile on Sado, where he had been converted by the Daishonin in the second month of 1272. A former Tendai priest, he already knew something about “the true aspect of all phenomena”; it was a fundamental concept in the Tendai school of Buddhism. He could not, however, satisfactorily come to grips with this...

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...

This letter was written at Minobu in the eleventh month of the third year of Kōan (1280) in response to a petition from the lay nun Nichigon. She is thought to have been either a relative of the lay priest Takahashi, a central figure among the believers in Fuji District of Suruga Province, or the mother of Nichigen, a priest of Jissō-ji temple in the same province who converted to Nichiren Daishonin’s...

On the ninth day of the tenth month, 1271, on the eve of his departure for Sado Island, Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter to Chikugo-bō Nichirō, who was later to become one of his six senior disciples. Nichirō and his father had converted to the Daishonin’s teachings in 1254, and Nichirō had received the tonsure under the supervision of his uncle Nisshō, also later to become one of the six senior disciples. At the time of the Tatsunokuchi Persecution in the ninth month of 1271, Nichirō and...

Although there are different opinions concerning the date of this letter, it is generally accepted that Nichiren Daishonin wrote it in the third month of the third year of Kōchō (1263), shortly after he had been pardoned and had returned to Kamakura following two years of exile on the Izu Peninsula. The Daishonin was then forty-two years old. As the title indicates, this work discusses the significance of embracing the Lotus Sutra and is written in the form of five questions and answers....

Although there are different opinions concerning the date of this letter, it is generally accepted that Nichiren Daishonin wrote it in the third month of the third year of Kōchō (1263), shortly after he had been pardoned and had returned to Kamakura following two years of exile on the Izu Peninsula. The Daishonin was then forty-two years old. As the title indicates, this work discusses the significance of embracing the Lotus Sutra and is written in the form of five questions and answers. In...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter on the fifth day of the tenth month, 1271, only three weeks after he was nearly executed at Tatsunokuchi. It was sent to three of his leading disciples: Ōta Saemon, a government official, the lay priest Soya Kyōshin, and the Dharma Bridge Kanabara. One of them may have visited the Daishonin while he was being held in detention for exile at the residence of Homma, deputy constable of Sado Island, in Echi. Records indicate that the three disciples lived in...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter in the tenth month of the eighth year of Bun’ei (1271), just before he left for his exile on Sado Island. At that time, he was being held at the mainland residence of Homma Rokurō Saemon, the deputy constable of Sado. The Daishonin wrote the letter to an acquaintance at Seichō-ji temple in Awa Province, possibly a priest named Enjō-bō. Exile to Sado Island was a harsh punishment, second only to the death penalty. In this letter the Daishonin declares...

Background This is one of the many letters Nichiren Daishonin wrote to Shijō Kingo, his loyal disciple in Kamakura. Because of Kingo’s devotion to the Daishonin’s teachings, he was ordered in 1276 to move from his estate near Kamakura to the distant province of Echigo. The letter is not dated, but it is known to have been written in the third year of Kenji (1277). The concept of the “eight winds” is described in works such as The Treatise on the Stage of Buddhahood Sutra. They advise...

This letter, dated the eleventh day of the second month in 1272, was sent by Nichiren Daishonin to Sairen-bō Nichijō, a former Tendai priest who, for reasons that are unclear, was also living in exile on Sado Island. Details about Sairen-bō are scarce, but it is known that he was originally from Kyoto, and that he had studied at Mount Hiei, the seat of the Tendai school, before his exile. He was also present at the Tsukahara Debate, held in front of Sammai-dō, the Daishonin’s dwelling at...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter at Minobu in the intercalary third month of the second year of Kenji (1276) to Nanjō Tokimitsu, who lived in Ueno Village, in Suruga Province. Tokimitsu’s father, Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, had died in 1265, when he was seven years old and his mother was pregnant with his younger brother Shichirō Gorō. The death of his father and, later, of his elder brother forced Tokimitsu to assume the duties of steward of Ueno while still in his teens. He was about eighteen...

Written near the end of 1276, this letter was a reply to the lay priest Matsuno Rokurō Saemon. Four in his family received letters from Nichiren Daishonin—he, his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. One of his daughters married Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō and gave birth to Nanjō Tokimitsu, a staunch supporter of the Daishonin and his disciple Nikkō. It is thought that Matsuno was converted to the Daishonin’s teachings through this connection with the Nanjō family. This letter explains the fourteen...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter to the lay nun Toki in the third month of the second year of Kenji (1276) and entrusted its delivery to her husband, Toki Jōnin, who was visiting Minobu at the time. Toki’s mother had passed away toward the end of the second month of the year. In the third month, Toki carried her ashes from his home in Wakamiya, Shimōsa Province, to distant Minobu, where a memorial service was performed for her. From a letter the Daishonin sent to Toki one year earlier,...

Nichiren Daishonin sent this letter from Minobu in the seventh month, 1278, to the lay nun Myōhō, who lived in Okamiya Village in Suruga Province. Very little is known about Myōhō. This letter was written in response to a letter she had sent the Daishonin, asking whether one can attain enlightenment by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo alone. A later letter from the Daishonin to Myōhō tells us that the lay nun’s husband died shortly after the present letter was written, and that her inquiry was...

Shijō Kingo visited Nichiren Daishonin on Sado Island in the fourth month of the ninth year of Bun’ei (1272), and the Daishonin entrusted him with this letter for his wife, Nichigen-nyo, who was a devoted follower of the Daishonin’s teachings. Nichigen-nyo was the name given to her by the Daishonin. He also named her two daughters, Tsukimaro and Kyō’ō. First, the Daishonin urges Nichigen-nyo to read the letter with Tōshirō’s wife. While little is known of Tōshirō and his wife, it is...

This letter was written to the wife of Omosu in acknowledgment of offerings Nichiren Daishonin had received from her at the beginning of the year. The precise year of this letter, however, remains unclear. Omosu derived his name from that of the area in which his estate waslocated, Omosu Village in Fuji District of Suruga Province. His full name was Ishikawa Shimbei Yoshisuke. His wife was the elder sister of Nanjō Tokimitsu. In this letter, Nichiren Daishonin explains the operative...

This brief letter was written in the eighth month of the tenth year of Bun’ei (1273) and was addressed to Kyō’ō, Shijō Kingo’s infant daughter. Since Kyō’ō was then only one year old, however, it may be assumed that the letter was meant for Shijō Kingo and his wife, Nichigen-nyo. They had two children, Kyō’ō (Sutra King) and another daughter, Tsukimaro (Full Moon), who was a year older. Both were apparently named by Nichiren Daishonin. This letter was written in response to news...

Nichiren Daishonin sent this letter from Mount Minobu to Nanjō Tokimitsu, the steward of Ueno Village in Suruga, in the ninth month, 1281. Nanjō Tokimitsu was then just twenty-two years old. Following the Atsuhara Persecution, in which Nanjō Tokimitsu had played an extremely important role in supporting the believers, government officials had taxed his estate heavily so that he had difficulty maintaining his family. Exactly what illness he was suffering from remains unclear; he recovered,...

This letter was written to a young disciple named Jakunichi-bō Nikke, the son of the lord of Okitsu, Kazusa Province. It is dated the sixteenth day of the ninth month, with no year indicated, though it is believed to be 1279. Early in the Bun’ei era (1264–1275) Jakunichi-bō and his family had become followers of the Daishonin, who was then propagating his teachings in their area. Jakunichi-bō became a priest and later founded Tanjō-ji temple in Kominato to commemorate the place of...

This letter, written in the fifth month of the first year of Kenji (1275), is one of several that Nichiren Daishonin wrote to the lay nun Myōichi, who lived in Kamakura and was related to Nisshō, one of the Daishonin’s six senior priest-disciples. Myōichi was an educated woman who had lost her p.537husband and was struggling with the difficulties of raising her children alone. Nichiren Daishonin wrote to encourage her, explaining that believers of the Lotus Sutra are as if in the midst of...

This letter was written on the twenty-fifth day of the first month in 1278. Shijō Kingo, because of his faith in Nichiren Daishonin’s teaching, had long suffered the disfavor of his lord, Ema. In this letter the Daishonin congratulates Kingo on the trust Ema has newly placed in him, and on what appears to be a positive turn of events. Citing a report from a priest who has observed Kingo taking a prominent position in his lord’s entourage, the Daishonin nevertheless expresses concern. In the...

Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter at Minobu in the last month of the fourth year of Kōan (1281) to the lay nun of Kubo, thanking her for the offerings that she had sent him. The lay nun was a widow who lived with her daughter in Kubo in Fuji District of Suruga Province, but little else is known about her. From the contents of the several letters addressed to her, she appears to have been a believer of pure faith who frequently sent offerings to the Daishonin. In response to her gifts,...

Written in the fourth year of Kenji (1278), this letter is also referred to as Before and after Sado because it makes a clear distinction between the teachings the Daishonin expounded before his exile to Sado Island and those during and after his Sado exile. He compares the former to the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, which Shakyamuni preached as an expedient to lead his disciples to the Lotus Sutra. Concerning his true teaching, the Daishonin says, “I secretly conveyed my teaching to my...