As for myself, who has committed no sin whatsoever, I, Nichiren, was blamed of committing the grave sin of chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō at the discretion of the ruler of Japan and was exiled to Izu Province in the first year of Kōchō (1261). Again, on the 12th of the ninth month in the eighth year of Bun’ei (1271), I was paraded around on horseback as a prisoner in front of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman and was made a laughing stock by all the slanderers of the True Dharma in Japan. Was this not a mistake of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, who did not stop it from happening? It was not that Hachiman did not remonstrate at all with slanderers of the True Dharma, but the only remonstrance of Hachiman seems to have caused domestic quarrel among members of the Hōjō clan.

The Great Bodhisattva Hachiman was once the wise emperor of Japan, Emperor Ōjin. In addition, he is one of the greatest gods in Japan, competing with Goddess Amaterasu of the Ise Shine for supremacy. I do not believe that there is any god superior to Hachiman and that he can ever be unfair. Nevertheless, according to the rules of all the Buddhist scriptures and the Lotus Sūtra, Hachiman committed a great sin by protecting the slanderers of the True Dharma and refusing to help the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 268