Introduction from Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening.

On September 12, 1271, Nichiren Shōnin was arrested and taken to the execution grounds on Tatsunokuchi beach. He was saved from death when a mysterious ball of light that flew through the sky frightened the executioner and the other samurai. A messenger from the regent arrived soon after with orders that Nichiren Shōnin was not to be executed in any case but exiled instead. On October 10, 1271, Nichiren Shōnin was sent into exile on Sado Island. At first, he lived in a small broken-down shrine in a graveyard called Tsukuhara. It was the hope of his enemies that Nichiren Shōnin would die in the harsh winter of Sado Island without any adequate shelter or provisions.

Many of Nichiren Shōnin’s followers, like Nisshin and Nichirō had also been arrested and imprisoned. They wondered why they had not been protected from such persecution, so in order to resolve these doubts Nichiren Shōnin wrote the Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching (Kaimoku-shō) in February 1272 and addressed it to Shijō Kingo, a samurai in Kamakura who was a staunch follower of Nichiren. Shockingly, Nichiren Shōnin wrote that he had been beheaded at Tatsunokuchi and it was his spirit that had come to Sado Island. This reflects Nichiren Shōnin’s feelings that in a sense he had given up his life at the execution ground and had now begun a new life. At the same time, he was aware that he could still literally die in the harsh conditions of winter on Sado Island or that he might once again face execution. So he stated that the Kaimoku-shō was intended to be a memento and an expression of his true will if it should come to that. Throughout the work, Nichiren Shōnin states that the most important question is whether or not he really has been acting as the practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra; and, if so, why he and his followers have not received the blessings and protections of the buddhas, bodhisattvas and other divine protectors of the Dharma.

In the course of the Kaimoku-shō Nichiren Shōnin shows through a series of comparisons that only the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra can enable all people to attain buddhahood. He also shows that the Lotus Sūtra itself predicted that anyone propagating it in the Latter Age of the Dharma would be bound to encounter the kinds of hardships that Nichiren Shōnin and his disciples had already faced and would continue to face. Nichiren also discerned that of all the teachers in Japan at that time, he was the only one who was directing people to the Lotus Sūtra instead of away from it. Having reflected upon these things, Nichiren Shōnin states his determination in the form of a threefold vow to continue upholding the Lotus Sūtra for the sake of Japan, no matter what hardships he might have to face:

“…no matter how many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a man of wisdom defeats me by reason. Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow to become the pillar of Japan, to become the eyes of Japan, and become a great vessel for Japan.” (Hori 2002, p. 106; see also Murano 2000, p. 114; Gosho Translation Committee 1999, pp. 280-281)

The Kaimoku-shō is one of the five major writings of Nichiren Shōnin. In it, Nichiren Shōnin reflects upon the course of his life and the nature of the hardships and persecutions that had beset him. In this work, Nichiren Shōnin clarifies his mission and renews his determination to work selflessly, even at the cost of his life, for the sake of Japan and by extension all sentient beings whose only salvation is in the universal promise of Buddhahood conveyed by the Lotus Sūtra.

Open Your Eyes, p8-9