As an addendum to my 100 Days of Study I’m reproducing here the introductory essay by Professor Yutaka Takagi of Risshō University that appears in Nyonin Gosho, a volume of Nichiren’s letters addressed to women. This sampling of 22 of Nichiren’s letters contains 8 letters not included in the seven volumes of the Writings of Nichiren Shōnin. The letters in this volume were translated by Nichiren Shū priests in America, including two letters translated by Ven. Kenjo Igarashi.
Nichiren and Women
1. Women Followers of Nichiren
In pre-modern Japan, women in general were referred to as me, omina, onna, nyonin or nyōbō. Occasionally the term fujin was used but josei does not seem to have been in use. Another term menoko was used for women, but it also meant girls like me—no-warawa. The Chinese characters joshi or saishi were read as meko, and joshi (read as meko) seems to have meant girls. Of these, nyonin was by far the most commonly used.
In Nichiren’s writings, too, the term nyonin is found most often. Apart from these general terms for women, there are characteristic ways of addressing a woman in ancient and medieval Japan: upperclass women such as imperial princesses, women of upper aristocratic, and upper samurai families were referred to by individual names. For instance, the wife of Minamoto Yoritomo was referred to as Hōjō Masako. It should be remembered, however, that, as seen here, women retained their original names after marriage. In modern terms a man and his wife had separate family names.
Thus, individual names of those women belonging to the upper echelons of society are occasionally known to us, but those of lowerclass women are rarely known. However, as individual names should have been necessary for differentiating one from another in daily life, there must have been individual names. Nevertheless, it is a fact that it was extremely rare for such names to appear in historical documents.
How then were letters for women addressed in those days? Among the Kamakura Buddhist monks, Nichiren wrote the most letters to women, which was an outstanding characteristic in propagation and acceptance of his religion. Considering this, let me enumerate some examples showing the way Nichiren addressed the women to whom he wrote or who were mentioned in his letters:
- My Lady Oto
- Wife of Lord Shijō Kingo
Wife of Lord Ōta Wife of Lord Hyōe-sakan
Lord Nitta and His Wife
Wife of Lay Priest Lord Inagawa - My Lady, Mother of Lord Ueno
Mother of My Lady Oto - My Lady, Nun of Matsuno My Lady, Nun of Kubo
My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno
My Lady, Nun Abutsubō
My Lady, Nun Myōichi
My Lady, Nun Myōshin
Nun Zenichi
As you can see in this list, no one was addressed by a proper noun, e.g. Hōjō Masako. That is to say, for one, none of those women, who received Nichiren’s letters, belonged to the upperclasses, because as we pointed out above only upperclass women were identified by personal names in those days.
Next “My Lady Oto” under (I), seemed to be an unmarried woman, as her mother was addressed “Mother of My Lady Oto” under (3). A woman addressed as ‘ ‘Lady Nichigen” by Nichiren may also have been unmarried. However, such unmarried women are small in number, with the greater number of married women called ‘ ‘wives”; (2) illustrates this. As in the case of “Wife of Lord Ōta,” the honorific suffix “lord” was fixed to the husband, not to the wife; an expression in which a wife seems to be regarded as an appendix to her husband. Under (3) are mothers, names of whose children—Lord Ueno (i.e., Lord Nanjō) and My Lady Oto—are used for identification.
Under (4) each is a nun; though they all lived as nuns, it does not necessarily mean that they resided in nunneries, renouncing families, as monks renounced their families. There seems no doubt that they lived the same as the laity. Nevertheless, they were called nuns. Why? For one, it was perhaps because of their peculiar hair style called amasogi, cutting the hair straight below the eyebrows. Cutting hair (including amasogi) or shaving the head was the proof of having entered the Buddhist order in those days. So it is possible that women with the amasogi hair-do were recognized as nuns even if they lived as laity. For another, these nuns probably observed the precept of refraining from sexual relations: abstention from sexual relations is one of the precepts required of Buddhist monks and nuns. Male counterparts of women, who were called nuns while living as laity, were those men who were called lay priests. An example of a lay priest and a nun living together as husband and wife is that of Lay Priest Toki, the greatest lay-supporter of Nichiren Shönin, and his wife, Nun Toki. However, many of those who were addressed as nuns seem to have been single. Probably they became nuns after their husbands passed away. Accordingly the motive for their becoming nuns might have been to pray in behalf of their late husbands, that is, to offer the merit of entering the priesthood in praying for the repose of their deceased husbands. Some wives probably became nuns for similar reasons: to pray for the recovery of their husbands from serious illnesses. The Jöei Code, the basic law of samurai society at the time of Nichiren, stipulated that it was the duty of widows to pray for their deceased husbands. Accordingly, this, together with not remarrying, was the chastity required of women in those days.
The names of these nuns are of two types: first, “My Lady, the Nun of Matsuno” and “My Lady, the Nun of Kubo,” were called by the names of places they resided; names of other nuns, such as “Nun Myōichi” and “Nun Myōhō” were Buddhist names taken probably from the Myōhō Renge-kyō. “Nun Zenichi” must have been a Buddhist name including “Nichi” taken from “Nichiren.” Notations on existing mandalas, hand written by Nichiren and given to his followers, show that he granted them Buddhist names including
the character nichi. By granting such names Nichiren hoped that a sense of belonging to one family would be strengthened among his followers. Putting it another way in modern terms, he hoped to promote cohesion of those with the same faith. At the same time, such Buddhist names were believed to be granted also to those who were identified by their residence. Nevertheless, it is not clearly known why they were identified by the names of the places they resided.
2. What Women Followers of Nichiren Expected
Why did Nichiren write to so many women? Even to women, who were married, and called “wives,” Nichiren wrote as individuals independent of their husbands. That is to say, he wrote to self-supporting, independent women, who had their own properties and were capable of acting on their own, based on their financial power. In concrete and simple terms, these women, independent of their husbands or on their own, were able to send offerings to Nichiren. They sent, on their own, indeed, such various offerings to Nichiren as rice, wheat, laver (non), seaweed (wakame), taro, devil’s-tongue (konnyaku), persimmons, citron, sake, candy, coins, hemp-garments, and robes. They could be divided into food-stuff (mostly rice and wheat), coins and clothes.
The food—stuff was harvested from their farms and gardens on their homesteads, which indicates that those women owned such farms and vegetable gardens, and perhaps many of them were engaged in agriculture. At any rate, they more or less owned properties or farmlands, apart from those of their husbands, products of which were offered to Nichiren. Thus, it was possible for those women to be initiators for making offerings to Nichiren or requesting him to conduct Buddhist services. Therefore Nichiren, who received the offerings and was requested to conduct services, wrote letters in order to express his gratitude to them directly and answer their questions. Women’s economic independence based on separate ownership of property between husband and wife helped women to be independent parishioners of Nichiren just like men.
Then what did these women expect of Nichiren and what did they ask him?
First of all they expected him to pray for the repose of the deceased. Nichiren recited the Lotus Sutra and chanted the daimoku for the bliss of the deceased and to ensure that they fared better in their next lives. The deceased for whom those women wanted to pray were their parents, husbands, and children. Though it seems very rare for siblings to pray for each other, there is an instance of an elder brother sending offerings to Nichiren to pray for his younger brother. At any rate, those women as children, wives and mothers prayed for the repose of their late parents, husbands and children, as well as being able to make offerings for having prayers said because of their own wealth. Being filial to parents, chaste to husbands, and compassionate to children, those women served them even after each of them had passed away.
Regardless whether they were girls, wives, widows, mothers, or nuns who continued family-lives of lay people, those women all hoped to attain Buddhahood. In Buddhism it had been regarded that women were creatures incapable of attaining Buddhahood. It was a matter of discrimination against women in Buddhist philosophy, which maintained that women are incapable of attaining Buddhahood because of their inherent five hindrances, including being unable to become a Buddha. A woman called Nun Sen’nichi of Sado wrote to Nichiren saying: “1 am concerned with the sins of women. In your sermon you have said that attainment of Buddhahood by women takes precedence in the Lotus Sutra. So I am totally depending on you.” It shows what was sought after not only by her but also all women, who were regarded inherently incapable of becoming Buddhas. They expected to find above all the solution to this problem in the person of Nichiren. Regarding the way of life for women in those days, the “three bonds” (the Confucian moral that they should obey fathers at home, husbands when married, and children when widowed) and “five hindrances” (which regarded them incapable of becoming Brahma Heavenly King, Indra, king of devils, Wheel-Turning Noble King, and Buddha) were stressed. Especially, ‘five hindrances” are mentioned in the “Devadatta” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, as the sutra gained in popularity from the Heian Period, women became religiously aware of them. However, attainment of Buddhahood by women is also possible according to the “Devadatta” chapter, in which it is mentioned that a daughter of a Dragon King became a Buddha. The “Devadatta” chapter, which guarantees the attainment of Buddhahood by Devadatta, the Evil, as well as by women, has been revered by both men and women as the basis of attaining Buddhahood. Thus, central to the faith in the Lotus Sutra prevalent during the Heian Period was faith in the “Devadatta” chapter. Doubtless to say that Nichiren made use of it. For instance he wrote to Nun Kōnichi saying: “Three bonds that tied you have been cut in this life; the cloud of five hinderances has already been cleared. The moon in your heart has no cloud to cover it, and the dirt on your body has all been wiped off. You are a Buddha as you are. What a blessing!”
Buddhist orders in the Kamakura Period, both old and new, tried to save the people or lead them to Buddhahood, and people were dead serious about attaining it. Under such circumstances, women with independently disposable properties spent them to pray for the repose of the deceased. It also provided an economic foundation for supporting the monastic order of Nichiren and his disciples. In this sense, women capable of independently being engaged in religious activities were among a larger group of women who meekly submitted to parents or husbands. Nichiren’s letters addressed to his female followers point this out, and his letters reflect his sincerity with which he tried to solve these women’s problems and console them in their sadness. In writing a history of Japanese women, these letters of Nichiren for women are indispensable as historical documents.
Yutaka Takagi, Professor
Risshō University, Tokyo, Japan
