Taisekiji Temple has in its possession
the so-called Two Transfer Documents
Kominato bay ~ Japan (photo by S. Polito)From the Analect of the Kempon Hokke
Nichiren Ichigo Guho Fuzoku Sho supposedly written by
Nichiren at Minobu in September 1282 This document says
that Nichiren transferred the entirety of his teachings to
Nikko and entrusted him with the mission of propagating
true Buddhism.Minobusan Fuzoku Sho supposedly written by Nichiren
on October 13, 1282. This document says that Nichiren
appointed Nikko as the High Priest of Minobusan Kuonji,
and proclaimed that all the disciples of Nichiren should
follow Nikko.The documents are listed as the Minobu Sojo and the
Ikegami Sojo in the Nichiren Shu Shugaku Zensho,
Volume II.Both documents appear for the first time in the
Kyakugojikkajo, written by Nikkyo (1428-1489) in 1480.
The contents of the two documents in this mentioning are
different from what are preserved at Taisekiji Temple
today. This is proof that several forgeries had already
been made by the time of Nikkyo.Nichido (1283-1341), the fourth Chief Priest of Taisekiji
Temple, clearly states in his Nikkyo Shonin Goden Soan
(The Biography of Nikko) that Nikkyo stayed at Minobu
for three years, not six as falsleyfalsely reported.Minobu Sojo bears the statement that the Monnon no
Kaidon should be established at Fujisan Hommonji. Fujisan
Hommonji is another name for Nishiyama Hommonji, which
was founded by Nichidai (1294-1394), who had been ousted
from Kitayama Hommonji due to a succession dispute. It
appears the thethe Monbu Sojo may have been forged by
a chief priest of Nishiyama Hommonji. At one time,
Nishiyama Hommonji was on friendly terms with Taisekiji. Therefore, Taisekiji had no objection to keeping the
document although the place of the Kaidan was assigned
to Nishiyama Hommonji, and not to Taisekiji.Both temples became hostile to each other after Taisekiji
produced the Ita Honzon. Nichi-u the fourth Chief Priest
of Taisekiji Temple said this honzon was transferred from
Yashiro to Taisekiji, therefore making Taisekiji the only
temple which preserves the most legitmatelegitimate
honzon.BUT...in the Fuji-isseki-monto-zonji-no-koto by Nikko,
it states that Honzons should not be engraved on a plank,
because it would belittle the value of handwriting.Quite interestingly, the dictionary published by the
Nichiren Shoshu omits the statement about Fujisan
Hommonji in the Minobu Sojo that the Hommon no
Kaidan should beestablished at Fujisan Hommonji.In the Rissho Ankoku Ron, Nichiren says that all the
calamities that face Japan and its people comes from
abandoning the Original Shakyamuni and replacing him
with Amida, Dainichi, Yakuo, etc. Was Nichiren lying
to us, with the ulterior motive of giving himself the title
of True Buddha in the future?Was it some kind of plot on his part to give the secret
message to a single person, to someday, two hundred
years in the future, come out with the announcement
that he was only assuming the temporary guise of
Jogyo, but he's actually the True Buddha himself?Did he intentionally lie to all the other disciples and entrust a secret transmission to Nikko? (Nikko doesn't even mention
such a thing in any of his writings.) Nichiren wrote that he has revealed everything in his writings, and that there are no secrets that he hasn't revealed. Was he lying? Would you want to trust
a man who would think this way? He wrote about everything
that his teachings entailed.....the gohonzon, the daimoku,
his role as Jogyo. He said that he wished to write everything
down, so that his disciples in the future would have no doubts
about his intentions. Yet, he didn't write a thing about the dai-gohonzon or his new role of "true buddha". Was he remiss
in not writing about these two most important issues, the whole
backbone of the Taisekiji TempleSGI/NST philosophy? Or was
this stuff added later, by deluded priests who thought they
knew the real intent of Nichiren? They even wrote many
forgeries, and added dates and signatures that were supposed
to be Nikko or Nichiren himself. How could they justify such deceptions? Did they think that Nichiren simply overlooked mentioning these points and it was their role to now add them
to the teachings, even with a forged signature to give the later
writings some credibility?Contemporary records of Nichiren's funeral ("Gosenge
kiroku") in Nikko's own hand spell out Nichiren's will to
leave his teaching in the hands of six senior priests. The
document is preserved at Nishiyama Honmonji. In this
document, Nikko was given no special considerations.
If Nikko had received a special and exclusive succession
from Nichiren on the latter's deathbed, it is unthinkable
that he wouldn't have been the chief celebrant at the funeral;
likewise, the distribution of belongings shows that Nikko
received no special goods (an inkstand and one other relic,
I believe) while Nichiro was given Nichiren's own statue
of Shakyamuni and Nissho received the "Chu Hokkekyo"
(Nichiren's own annotated copy of the Lotus Sutra).Another document, "Rembo Cho" outlined the rotating
"Abbotship" of Minobu.There are two versions of the "Rembo Cho". The first is
called.."Concerning the Duty Accounts of Kuonji"..(Kuonji
is Nichiren's own Temple on Minobusan) and the second
version is called "Concerning the Duty Roster to Guard
the Grave".The plan devised by the Six Senior Priests just after the
Dai-Shonin's death, was that each one of them would take
turns residing at Kuonji, the head temple of the sect. This
included the important duty of guarding Nichiren's grave.
It's indeed an overstatement to say that this was a rotating
Abbotship but rather more indicative of the fact that there
was no one single Abbot or High Priest to use another term.
Again, Nikko does not stand out, so my primary argument
remains intact.The rotating stewardship of Kuonji did not work out. Travel
in those days was very difficult. Eventually both Nikko and
Niko Shonin took up residence at Minobu, leaving the other
four to their propagation efforts. Niko and not Nikko, was
eventually appointed Abbot of Kuonj.If Nikko had really been Nichiren's heir there would be some letters and documents between the Senior Priests where the
matter was discussed. There are none. Nikko also does not
stand out or take any special role in the documents that do
exist. It is a reasonable assumption that he was not the
DaiShonin Daishonin's sole heir.The six senior priests were on friendly terms until at least
1285. Letters in Nikko's own hand, to the others, show a spirit
of reconciliation in later years.. He praised Nichiro in a letter
near the end of Nikko's life and he welcomed Nitcho to Kitayama Honmonji, where the latter spend the last 16 years of his life,
after a fallout with Toki Jonin, his father in law.If Nichiren had designated Nikko as his exclusive successor
and chief priest of Kuonji, the others would have been obligated
to respect Nichiren's wishes from 1282. However, Nikko did not stay permanently at Minobu until 1285, when the others could
not journey from Kamakura anymore. Niko came to Minobu in
late 1285 because Lord Hakiri was not happy with Nikko.....then Nikko left in 1288. All this would have been unthinkable if Nikko was Nichiren's sole successor.The Ita Mandara was attacked by Nichijo, head priest of Kityama Honmonji and contemporary of Nichi-u (the 9th HP of Taisekiji). Nichijo reveals that Nichi-u became a leper for "having gone
against the fundamental intention of the founder of the temple and carving the itaIta Mandara which had never been seen or heard of; he also produced forged books adorned with his own doctrines.
"( From the "Taisekiji kyowaku kempon sho" or "the Insane Revelation of the Original Buddha at Tasekiji")Shigyo Kaishu's study on Nikko's writings shows that in the authentic "Hara"letter, Nikko states that mandalas are to be
used until a proper statue of the Eternal Shakyamuni with the attendant four honge bodhisattvas around him could be erected.("...mandala is temporary until a future time..")
Shigyo Kaishu's study of the documents of the Nikko faction
shows that this attitude was common for the next generation
and then began to shift towards a total mandala orientation.
Even in all of these Nikko texts, there is no mention of the
Ita Mandara. The earliest text giving details of the Ita
Mandara (outside of Nichi-u's writings) is the "Kechu Sho"
which dates from 1662. And even there, the reference has
been tampered with. Bear in mind that Kitayama Honmonji
and Taisekiji were on friendly terms until Nichi-u (circa
1480).Thereafter they patched things up. All the high priests of Taisekiji, from number 15 through number 21, were imported
from Yoboji, a Nikko temple in Kyoto, and associated with Honmonji Kitayama.When Nikko left Minobu in 1288, he criticized his colleagues in Kamakura for joining other sects in government sponsored prayers for the peace and prosperity of the nation. What most disturbed Nikko was that Nissho and Nichiro had signed the mandatory
documents using the title, "Tendai shamon" (tendai monk).
Such a designation was commonly used by Nichiren's immediate disciples, many of whom had converted from the Tendai sect.
In fact, Nichiren called himself a "disciple of Saicho (Dengyo)
of the Tendai-Hokke Sect".The reality was that, after Nichiren's death, the followers of Nichiren were "outlaws", because they had no official status
as a separate sect. In fact, the Tendai sect considered the
Nichiren "branch" as a tendai school. Nichiren even called
Shijo Kingo as "Shijo Kingo of the Hokke Shu", because
Nichiren did not found a different sect in his lifetime. In
short, the Nichiren "sect" was not a recognized, legal entity
at all.Given their "unofficial" (hence illegal) status, Nissho and
Nichiro were in a delicate situation. Since they were officially Tendai monks, they signed as such. The truth is that they were
faced with signing the official documents, or being immediately marched to the beach in Kamakura to be beheaded as criminals, the Nichiren temples would be immediately confiscated and the believers would be imprisoned.In order to preserve the fledgling Nichiren sect, Nissho and
Nichiro finally signed, after rigorously protesting the forced involvement in the national prayer efforts . Nikko, situated
far from Kamakura, never had to undergo any government persecutions, so he did not appreciate the severity of the
situation.It was not until Nichiro's line established itself in Kyoto
that the Nichiren sect finally attained official status as a
separate sect, after a long and arduous series of
persecutions endured by Nichizo (who was only 13 years
old when Nichiren died, but who was mandated by Nichiren..
or so says the legend...to convert the imperial family.) In
1333, after 48 years of struggle and exile, imprisonment,
etc. suffered by Nichizo, the Kyoto imperial government
recognized Myokenji, founded by Nichizo, as a
"chokuganhji", a temple enjoying imperial recognition.
That same year, 1333, Nikko and Nichimoku died, and the
first "succession" challenge occurred at Taisekiji. Ironically,
Nichimoku was on his way to Kyoto, now that Nichizo had
paved the way for several Nichiren temples to be established
in Kyoto. Nikko had lived in relative comfort at Kitayama
Honmonji for the last 36 years of his life. He is criticized for
having propagated the least of all the original six disciples,
after Nichiren's death. He had propagated during Nichiren's lifetime in the Fuji area, then dedicated his later years to
taking the lead of the sect away from the Kamakura branch.
In this he failed miserably.....Kamakura transported itself to
Kyoto and established the Nichiren sect firmly there. Nikko remained in the Fuji area, far from any important center. Of Nikko's eight temples, the main one was Kitayama Honmonji,
not Taisekiji (which was still a family temple owned by the
Nanjo family, and the Nanjo's were at odds with Nikko).
The main Nikko sect today is called Nichiren Honshu. They
do not support the theology of Taisekiji at all. Most of
Nikko's original writings are housed with Nichiren Honshu.At this point in history, the doctrines of all the Nichiren
branches were essentially the same in believing the Eternal
Buddha, the Lotus Sutra and the position of Nichiren as
Jogyo. Even Nichi-u, the 9th High Priest of Taisekiji who
introduced the fake "dai-gohonzon", maintained, in his
writings, that Nichiren was the Bodhisattva Jogyo. It
wasn't until 100 years later that the first mention of
"Nichiren as True Buddha" is recorded.One more note about Nissho and Nichiro.... I think
that Nichiren would have gone down to the beach to face
beheading one more time, instead of "compromising" and
partaking in government sponsored prayers. But, I can't
blame them for saving their necks in order to keep their
temples and to save the lives of their followers. Nikko,
living in safety at Minobu, was not exactly "in the trenches"
with the others, so his "holier than thou" attitude was a
luxury, even if he was justified in his criticisms.It's interesting to speculate the course of Nichiren's
teaching if Nissho and Nichiro had chosen execution instead
of compromise. Nikko would never have left Minobusan (he
would have also been eventually executed) and Taisekiji
would never have been founded.
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