The political situation of his time

Early in the thirteenth century, the power of the ruling clan Minamoto passed gradually into the hands of their usurping major-domos, the Hōjō family. The latter ruled with the modest title of Shikken, or Commissioners, with the puppet dictatorship ostensibly over them. Their government was famous for strict execution of justice and for simplicity of administration; and the Commissioners themselves set examples of simple life and stern justice. But their modesty was, in the eyes of those who regarded them as usurpers, merely a means to their ambition – the ambition to secure popularity – and their equity but a method of solidifying their rule. Indeed, the Hōjōs understood how to sacrifice everything in titulo to the power de facto, and to become the real rulers of the nation by pushing aside the Imperial family and the titulary Dictator. A firm peace was established, and economic conditions prospered; but there was something lacking in it. There prevailed a feeling among the thoughtful minority that the “country of the gods” was not being actually ruled by its legitimate rulers, the descendants of the Sun-goddess.

Availing themselves of this unexpressed dissatisfaction, the Imperial party framed a plot against the Hōjōs in 1221, a few months before the birth of Nichiren. The plot was defeated, and the Commissioner government dared to banish prominent members of the Imperial family to remote islands, and to put an infant on the throne. Thus, the Hōjō power was consolidated and immensely increased, although these rulers still retained the modest title of Commissioner. The resentment of the discontented patriots only grew deeper in consequence of the forcible suppression of the movement, but politically their cause had already been hopelessly lost.

It was under these circumstances that Nichiren appeared on the public platform as a spokesman of the patriotic cause whose utterances were deeply tinged with religious fervor. He declared that the nation would be ruined, unless the fundamental principle of the national life should be restored, that is, unless the people were governed by rulers legitimate both in title and authority. Herein lay the national standpoint of his religious ethics, and this plea attracted to his teaching many warriors who were imperialists in principle or covert malcontents against the existing régime. This was also the reason why the Hōjō government, as we shall presently see, treated the clamorous protestant as a traitor.

NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET

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The Social Degeneracy and a Buddhist Prediction

[At the time of Nichiren’s birth,] nearly seven hundred years had passed since the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. It had become the religion of the state, and its hierarchies had attained the power and dignity of state authorities, but inner decay was manifesting itself, and the corruption of the clergy was becoming appalling. The central government, firmly established since the seventh century, was disintegrating through the degeneration of the court bureaucracy. The actual power was transferred to the hands of the military clans. The passing of the luxury and grandeur, “Peace and Ease,” of the court nobles in Miyako, and the establishment of the military dictatorship at Kamakura, far away in an eastern province, impressed the people immensely. The cherry blossoms, in full bloom, were suddenly scattered by a frosty storm. Not only did the poets so feel and sing, but the people were aware of the great changes going on around them.

In addition to these changes, the minds of the Buddhist leaders were in turmoil, excited by the prophecy of a great crisis to occur about that time — a crisis not only for Japan, but for the whole world. An old Buddhist tradition distinguished three periods of the Buddhist religion (Dharma, or Law) after the death of its founder. The first thousand years made up the age of the Perfect Law, in which the monastic discipline was strictly observed, and the believers were pious. The second millennium, the age of the Copied Law, was a time during which faith and morality declined, but piety was shown in the foundation of numerous temples and sanctuaries. The third age, the ten thousand years after that, was to be the age of the Latter Law, a reign of vice and strife. Though there were minor variations in the tradition as regards the time divisions, all Japanese Buddhists believed in the apocalyptic legend as a whole.

And since they put Buddha’s death in 949 B.C., they believed that the last of the three ages began in the year 1052 A.D., twenty-four years after the death of the Regent Michinaga, with whom the pomp and splendor of the court life in Miyako reached its culmination.

What form of Buddhism would be best suited to the coming days of degeneration was a question which had occupied the thought of many Buddhist leaders since the ninth century. Saichō, who founded a new center of Buddhism on Mount Hiei, near the then new capital Miyako, in the beginning of the ninth century, meant the foundation to be a preparation for the approaching days of the third age. He said: “Approaching is the end of the age of the Copied Law, and nigh is coming that of the Latter Law; the ripe time for the propagation of the unique truth expounded in the Lotus of Truth” [Lotus Sutra]. Thenceforward, none of the leaders escaped the influence of the prophecy, and serious thought on the Latter Days was growing during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. And it was Nichiren who came to the front as the most ardent follower of Saichō and was destined to encounter perils on that account.

When Nichiren appeared in public with his cry of warning, two hundred years had passed since the supposed beginning of the Latter Days. The vicissitudes of the rising and falling clans, culminating in the establishment of the military dictatorship by the Minamotos, seemed to manifest the dangerous signs of the times. The irremediable corruption of the hierarchies gave clamorous testimony to the decline of the religion.

NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET

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