This is another in a series of daily articles concerning Kishio Satomi's book, "Japanese Civilization; Its Significance and Realization; Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles," which details the foundations of Chigaku Tanaka's interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism and Japan's role in the early 20th century.

[Nichiren] beheld the signification of the relation between the Hokekyo and Nichiren himself through the fact of the wonderful combination of Japan. According to him, the world must be united as bretheren, namely as a moral world, and in the future the Holy Altar of the Hokekyo, especially the Honmon centric commandment, shall be established in Japan. He says in one of his significant essays, “On the Three Great Secret Laws” (San dai Hihō Shō):

“At a certain future time, when the state law will unite with the Buddhist law and the Buddhist law harmonizes with the state law, and both sovereign and subjects will keep sincerely the Three Secret Laws, then will be realized such a golden age in the degeneration of the Latter Law, as it was in olden times under the rule of King Utoku. Thus the Holy Altar will be established with Imperial Sanction or the like at a place like the excellent paradise of Vulture Peak. We must only prepare and await the advent of the time. There is no other law or commandment which is practicable, only this one. This Holy Altar is not only the sanctuary for all nations of three countries (India, China and Japan) and the whole world, but even the great deities, Brahma and Indra, have to descend in order to initiate into the perfect truth of the Hokekyo ” (Works, pp. 240-41).

Western ideas about separating matters of religion from affairs of government are foreign to Nichiren’s thinking, according to Satomi.

In the religious sense, the unification of the world or the salvation of the world is impossible unless the religion and the country assimilate. Nichiren, there fore, determined the country as the unit of salvation of the world as far as method is concerned. He says:

“Hearken! the country will prosper with the moral law, and the law is precious when practiced by man. If the country be ruined and human beings collapse, who would worship the Buddha, who would believe the law? First of all, therefore, pray for the security of the country and afterwards establish the Buddhist Law” (Works, p. 13).

This is a paragraph in his important essay, “Rissho Ankoku-ron” or “An Essay on the Establishment of Righteousness and Security of the Country.” He discoursed on the relation between the country and religion in this essay and sent it to the Hojos Government at an early date as an intimation of his religious movement; but this thought fully developed by degrees and eventually the doctrine of the Holy Altar was founded. There is no doubt that Nichiren thus thought of the country as the most concrete basis on which to propagate religion.

For Satomi’s Nichirenism, religion is necessary in all aspects of material life.

Religion is intended to redeem living beings and their environment. Therefore, religion must purify the whole concrete life of man in order to religionize all individuals and the world. If religion does not in any sense concern material life, but merely spiritual life, then is religious influence almost in vain. A belief which purposely eliminates material affairs from the religious field is not only a misunderstanding of the essential meaning of religion, but is a very wrong view of human life. The true religious Empire can be established in the material world which is purified with spiritual signification. Nichiren’s doctrine of the Holy Altar is, indeed, an enlightenment of religion with material purification.

Satomi explains that the faithful must reconstruct the country so that it may exist “hand in hand with righteousness.”

According to Nichiren, in the degenerate days of the Latter Law, there is no Buddhist commandment outside of our vow for the reconstruction of the country and the realization of the Heavenly Paradise in the world. Even the so-called virtuous sage, if he does not embrace this great and strong vow, in other words only enjoys virtue individually, such a sage is pretty useless.

Although a man be imperfect, let him carry out Buddha’s task with the strong vow for the realization of Buddha’s Kingdom, with preaching or with economical power or with knowledge of sciences and with all sorts of such things. We can find the true significance of religion, of commandment, of human life therein.

Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p105

This is another in a series of daily articles concerning Kishio Satomi's book, "Japanese Civilization; Its Significance and Realization; Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles," which details the foundations of Chigaku Tanaka's interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism and Japan's role in the early 20th century.

Nichiren Shu doctrine describes the Three Great Secret Dharmas as the Gohonzon, the Daimoku and the Kaidan, or Precept Platform. Here’s Satomi’s summary:

The Three Great Secret Laws are the three aspects of his religion, and they emanated from the One Law which is indicated by the Sacred Title of the Hokekyo. Each of the Three is the independent principle on the one hand, and again each of them is the essential moment of the One Law on the other hand, that is to say something like Hegel’s “aufgehobenes Moment.”

It is the three aspects of reality in the sense of the observance of Law; it is the three expressions of the principle of typical personality in the significance of Buddha; it is the three principles of the modes of our lives in the significance of being. Let us reduce the three aspects, then it will be the One Law, and vice versa. From another point of view, the Sacred Title is the religious subject which indicates the Self, containing He. The Supreme Being of the three is the religious object in which the religious subject exists, in other words, it is the He which contains our Selves therein. The Holy See of the three is the concrete realization of the religion.

The Sacred Title is the law of awakening of the individual, the Holy See is the principle of idealization of the country, and the Supreme Being is the harmonious manifestation of the world.

In Satomi’s Nichirenism, the Holy Altar has special importance:

It is absolutely useless to seek the ideal world under the name of paradise after completing this life. Of course, we believe in an after-life as well as a past life in a religious sense. But we cannot demonstrate the past nor the after-life, therefore the after-life is possible only as a religious postulation. In short, we must apprehend the meaning of past and future in the very present, hence the present centric consistentism through the three lives, viz. the past, present and future. In respect thereof we shall have a full explanation and idea of Nichiren by our understanding of the doctrine of the Holy See.

Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p90

And later:

The third important thought in Nichirenism is the Holy Altar (or the Holy See). Nichiren founded his most concrete idea of his religious practice on this doctrine. As I have stated above, the Sacred Title was mentioned for the instruction of individuals, the Supreme Being was for the world or universe, and, from this point of view, this Holy Altar is the key to the enlightenment of the country. Moreover, this Holy Altar, in a sense, is the connection between the Sacred Title and the Supreme Being; namely the Holy Altar shows the concrete method of entering the Supreme Being, and how to adore the Sacred Title, the essential law of Buddhism.

This discussion of the Three Great Secret Laws or Dharmas is based on a single letter by Nichiren, Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas. The letter appears in the Doctrine 2 volume of the Writings of Nichiren Shōnin. The fact that this concept of Three Great Secret Dharmas is addressed only once in all of Nichiren’s writings has prompted controversy.

From 2000 to 2001, Rev. Gyokai Sekido wrote a series of articles for Nichiren Shu News about the advances in the study of Nichiren’s doctrines over the years. In discussing this letter he writes:

Nichiren Shonin’s “The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas” written in the fourth year of the Koan Era (1281) preaches the doctrine of the Three Great Secret Dharmas (the honzon, daimoku, and kaidan based on the doctrine revealed in the essential section: hommon of the Lotus Sutra), especially the establishment of the kaidan of the hommon.

The authenticity of this document, however, has often been questioned from ancient times. Utilizing the latest computer technology, Professors Zuiei Ito and Masakatsu Murakami, of Rissho University and Ministry of Education Center for the Study of Mathematical Principle respectively, tried to see if they could find the answer to this problem.

All sentences of Nichiren’s writings were divided up into grammatical units (such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, postpositional particles, prefixes, suffixes and conjunctions), to be analyzed by a computer in order to find out the characteristic use of the parts of speech in Nichiren’s writings and its yearly changes.

Then they compared it against what is found in similar analysis of the “Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas.” Beginning the project in 1975, this Ito-Murakami group reported its tentative conclusion in 1980 saying that the “Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas” is probably genuine. Their final conclusion in 1991 declared, “The writing is genuine,” creating a stir in the study of Nichiren’s writings.

Professor Ken’ichi Kammuri of Rissho University, however, has a strong doubt about the validity of handling words in the basic documents.

How Study on Nichiren Buddhism Has Made Progress in the 20th Century, p19-20

This is another in a series of daily articles concerning Kishio Satomi's book, "Japanese Civilization; Its Significance and Realization; Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles," which details the foundations of Chigaku Tanaka's interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism and Japan's role in the early 20th century.

If ever Japan produced a religious man worthy of the name, Nichiren was the man. He felt convinced that he was the incarnation of Honge Jogyo (Skt. Viśiṣṭacāritra) throughout the experiences and practices of his religious life. Now the so-called Honge Jogyo is the man who was foretold by Buddha Shakyamuni (Skt. Śākyamuni) in the Hokekyo or Myō-hō-renge-kyō (Skt. Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra), and it is my duty to offer my tribute of respect to the Hokekyo itself.

It is, of course, an established fact that the Hokekyo is the highest development of Buddhism. If the Hokekyo is not contained in Buddhism, then, even though there exist therein seven thousand Scriptures, all these books are but contradictory teachings. Therefore when a man desires to make a study of Buddhism, it is absolutely necessary for him to learn the position of the Hokekyo in all Buddhist Scriptures.

Satomi points out that Nichiren chose his name – Sun Lotus – in part from the Lotus Sutra’s description of the Bodhisattvas from Underground and thus identified himself with Honge Jogyo:

The latter part of the verses in [Chapter 21: The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas] runs as follows:

“He will, after the complete extinction of Tathagata, know the origin and orders, and he will preach the law as it is according to the real signification of Buddha’s Scriptures. Just as the light of the sun and moon does shine into darkness and dimness on the earth, so does this person expel ignorance (or gloom) from all beings.”

It must be noted firstly that the term “keep,” which is used in the above quotation, means not only mouth and mind, but the reading of the Hokekyo with body and life or flesh and blood, i.e. the practice. The Japanese technical term “Juji” is the equivalent. And secondly, that by “the Sun,” as above, and “the lotus” in the following eulogy of Honge Jogyo’s character [in Chapter 15: The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground]: “Those who have well learned the way of Bodohisattovas purify themselves from the evil law of the world, just as the lotus does in the water.” (Yamakawa, p. 450 ; Kern, p. 296). Nichiren was suggested, and got his name “Nichiren” when he left Hiei monastery and made his first denouncement at Kiyosumi in 1253 ; for “Nichi” means the Sun and “ren” means “the lotus.”

Thus, the Scripture and Buddha Himself were entrusted to Honge Jogyo.

For Satomi, Nichiren systemized his religion while in exile in Sado, working from his role as Honge Jogyo.

[Nichiren] finished “Opening the Eyes” in two volumes, amidst snowy winds in the desert [of Sado Island]. … The following year, 1273, was the most important year to him. He had explained his own personality and mission, so now his systematized philosophy of religion must be the next course to follow. Early in the year, he wrote “The Heritage of Buddha’s Introspective Religion ” (Hokkeshū Naishō Buppō Kechimyaku, Works, pp. 294-301), which he clearly laid down as follows:

“The heritage of my religion can adopt Tendai’s view of Heritage mainly, but from the true introspective point of view, only the Buddha Shakyamuni and Honge Jogyo are the ancestors.”

According to this, it is certain that Nichiren’s heritage of Buddhism is derived from the Buddha Shakyamuni’s introspection directly through the medium of the conception of Honge Jogyo’s personality. In April, he wrote an essay, “The Spiritual Introspection of the Supreme Being, Revealed for the First Time in the Fifth Five Hundredth Year after the Tathagata’s Death,” which is the chief work among the important works. His doctrine, the Fivefold Three Divisions were set down in this essay. All aspects of his doctrine and thoughts are strictly united here, so it is said that this essay is indeed the fundamental one concerning Nichirenism. And it must be noted by readers that nobody will understand this essay fully unless he reads the whole works carefully in order to get preparatory knowledge for the essay, and also the Hokekyo as the fundamental article for this single essay. We can read and understand well any other Buddhist articles if we know certain technical terms in general and have an idea of Buddhism, but it must be admitted that this essay needs deeper knowledge than knowledge of Buddhism in general. Therefore when we read it we must include his whole works as its interpretation.

Satomi saw Nichiren’s awareness of his relationship to Honge Jogyo reached its fullest extent in Minobu.

As regards his conviction of Honge Jogyo, it attained perfect maturity [at Minobu]. The following are a few of the examples:

“Already the great Bodhisattva out of the earth has appeared, so that the great Law which the Buddha made over to him, summing up the salient points of His Laws shall be in evidence ” (Works, p. 325).

“I, Nichiren, am the greatest practitioner of the Hokekyo in the world ” (Works, p. 119).

“I, Nichiren am the greatest sage in the world” (Works, p. 513).

Moreover, he wrote clearly identifying himself as the Honge Jogyo in one of the representations of the Supreme Being which he diagrammatized in the mountains of Minobu; it runs as follows:

“In the beginning of the Fifth Five Hundred Period the Bodhisattva Honge Jogyo appeared and propagated this Law for the first time.”

Thus his conviction was, now, expressed perfectly and there is no more doubt that his firm conviction of being the prophesied man in the beginning of the Fifth Five Hundred Period, was firmly realized. He wrote “On the Three Great Secret Laws” in 1281, and in it he tried to make suggestions rather concretely concerning the Holy Altar.

Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p181-182