Remonstrance at the Hachiman Shrine

It was the night of the twelfth of the ninth month when I was placed under arrest by Hōjō Nobutoki, Lord of Musashi Province, and was led out of Kamakura to be beheaded at midnight. At the crossing of the Wakamiya-kōji Street in front of the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, I stopped my horse and was surrounded by soldiers. I said to them, “Keep quiet, I have nothing special in mind except that I want to speak to the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman.” I got off my horse, and loudly declared:

“Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, are you truly a deity? In ancient times, when Wake no Kiyomaro was about to be beheaded by Priest Dōkyō, did you not protect Kiyomaro by appearing as the ten feet long moon? When Grand Master Dengyō lectured on the Lotus Sūtra, did you not present him with a purple colored kaṣāya robe? Now I, Nichiren, am the foremost practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan. Besides, I have committed no sin at all. What I have been preaching is the doctrine to save all the people in Japan, who are sure to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering for slandering the True Dharma, the Lotus Sūtra. Yet, I am about to be beheaded because of it. How can you, bodhisattva, just sit and watch me be executed? When the great Mongol Empire invade this country after I am put to death, would such guardian deities of Japan as Goddess Amaterasu and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman be safe?

“Moreover, when Śākyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha of Many Treasures, various Buddhas and bodhisattvas from all the worlds in the universe gathered together and arranged themselves so that they shone like suns, moons, stars, and mirrors. Then the Buddha asked numerous gods as well as virtuous deities and sages of India, China and Japan to take an oath to protect practicers of the Lotus Sūtra, and each of them wrote such an oath, did they not? If this was the case, you ought to immediately carry out what you swore without any reminders. Why don’t you appear right here to prove your good intention?”

Thus I declared in a resounding voice. In the end I added: “Upon arriving at the Pure-Land of Mount Sacred Eagle after being beheaded tonight, I will, without hesitation, first report to Śākyamuni Buddha that Goddess Amaterasu and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman are two deities who do not keep their pledges. If you feel at a loss, you had better reconsider and act in a hurry.” Having spoken this, I got back on my horse.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 27-28