Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p263-264Nichiren’s doctrine that faith in the Lotus Sutra would make the land peaceful draws on two sources. One is the old tradition of “nation protection” (chingo kokka), a belief in the magical power of Buddhism to ensure safety and prosperity in the realm. By Nichiren’s time, the Lotus had already enjoyed a long history as one of three “nation-protecting sutras,” having been transcribed, recited, and expounded for centuries in the belief that the merit of such deeds would ward off calamities and secure the country’s peace and stability. A second source for Nichiren’s risshō ankoku concept lay in Tendai metaphysical thinking about the nonduality of subjective and objective realms and the immanence of the Buddha land in this present world. In Nichiren’s reading, the nonduality of self and environment, of this world and the Buddha land, did not stop at subjective, personal insight; wherever the Lotus Sutra was embraced, he taught, the phenomenal world would actually be transformed. Thus, the Risshō Ankoku-ron states that when one has faith in the Lotus, “the threefold world will all become a Buddha land” and “the ten directions will all become a treasure realm” (Risshō 1988, 1:226).
How exactly did Nichiren envision the Buddha land that faith in the Lotus could manifest in this world? Although his extant writings contain little specific description, we can point to one passage, often cited in modern millennialist readings:
When all people throughout the land enter the one Buddha vehicle, and the Wonderful Dharma [of the Lotus] alone flourishes, because the people all chant Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, the wind will not thrash the branches nor the rain fall hard enough to break clods. The age will become like the reigns of [the Chinese sage kings] Yao and Shun. In the present life, inauspicious calamities will be banished, and people will obtain the art of longevity. When the principle becomes manifest that both persons and phenomena “neither age nor die,” then each of you, behold! There can be no doubt of the sutra’s promise of “peace and security in the present world.” (Nyosetsu shugyō shi in Risshō, 1988, 1:733).
This seems to suggest a conviction on Nichiren’s part that faith in the sutra could bring about an age of harmony with nature, just rule, and in some form, a transcending of impermanence. This conviction, that faith in the Lotus could outwardly transform the world, represents one of his most important legacies that supports the millennial thinking of modern followers.
Category Archives: Stone: Tanaka Millennialism
Japanese Lotus Millennialism
From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements
In 2000, the Syracuse University Press published “Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases,” an anthology of articles edited by Catherine Wessinger. Inside, is a chapter written by Jaqueline I. Stone entitled, “Japanese Lotus Millennialism: From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements.”
Having just finished reprinting quotes from Stone’s article on Chigaku Tanaka’s efforts to establish the Honman No Kaidan “By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Degree,” I want to add some additional discussion of Tanaka’s efforts to leverage Nichiren’s doctrines to enhance the cause of Japanese nationalism in the early 20th century.
As Stone explains in the article:
Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p274During Japan’s modern imperial period, intense nationalism, militarism, and war were assimilated to new millennial visions of a world harmoniously united under Japanese rule. Certain elements in the teachings of the medieval Buddhist teacher Nichiren were appropriated to these visions. His discourse about Japan as the place where a new Dharma would arise to illuminate the world was given an imperialist reading; his advocacy of assertive proselytizing or shakubuku—which for Nichiren had meant preaching and debate—was adopted as a metaphor for armed force; and his emphasis on giving one’s life for the Lotus became a celebration of violent death in the imperial cause. Such millennialist appropriations inspired not only extremists committed to political assassination or coups but also broadly legitimated the violence that pitted Japan as a whole against other Asian countries and the West.
And after Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, Nichiren’s teachings were again sought:
Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p274It is little exaggeration to say that ultranationalistic Lotus millennialism died in August 1945 in the flames of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But even before these ruined cities had been rebuilt, a new Lotus millennialism had risen to take its place. Postwar Lotus millennialism envisions a time when, by awakening to the universal Buddha nature, people everywhere will live in harmony and with mutual respect. Different Nichiren- and Lotus-related religious groups offer variations on this basic theme, but on one point they all agree: in that future time, there will be no war. Nuclear weapons, in particular, will be abolished.
The importance of Nichiren in the aspirations of Japan is emphasized in Stone’s conclusion:
Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p280What also strikes one in considering modern Lotus millennialism is how close it lies to mainstream aspirations. Perhaps a romantic advocate of direct imperial rule, such as Kita Ikki, whose ideas were appropriated in the service of a military insurrection, cannot be considered a mainstream figure; nor perhaps can the followers of Nihonzan Myōhōji, who advocate passive resistance and reject violence even in self-defense. But their millennial visions were at the moment of their emergence not so very remote from the hopes of large segments of the population, being intimately connected to widespread desires, respectively, for a strong Japanese empire in the 1930s and for abolition of the atomic threat in the immediate postwar period. This is all the more true in the case of the large Nichiren Buddhist lay movements, such as the Kokuchūkai, Risshō Kōsei-kai, and Sōka Gakkai. Tanaka gave voice to the patriotic sentiments of many and elevated them to a holy status in his rhetoric of Nichirenshugi; the support his movement won from government bureaucrats and military leaders shows that his vision was useful to official agendas. In the postwar period, Risshō Kōsei-kai and Sōka Gakkai articulate a widespread revulsion against war and fears about the continuing nuclear threat, offering a path by which the common citizen can contribute to their eradication. Such examples suggest that millennial thinking is by no means limited to the marginal or disenfranchised, but can serve to legitimize the actions of armies and politicians, and also give expression— albeit in intensified form—to aspirations shared by a majority.
Beginning today and continuing through Aug. 18, I will publish quotes that explain how Nichiren’s teachings have been adapted to promote both war and peace.