I’ve uploaded to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church website another of those treasures I discovered when I was cleaning out the Sunday school classroom. This one is a 5×7 booklet that tells the story of Nichiren’s life with paintings by Chokusai Uenaka.

From the Preface:
Since ancient times a genre of art called emakimono, in which biographies of individuals and narrative tales were presented in picture and written form, has existed in Japan. This book, following the traditional Japanese method, illustrates the biography of St. Nichiren, founder of the Nichiren-shu (sect) of Buddhism. An explanation of the scenes is also included.

The paintings of St. Nichiren’s life were executed by Chokusai Uenaka. Including a descriptive text which I composed, a Japanese edition of this book was published under the title of Nichiren Shonin eden (A Pictorial Biography of St. Nichiren) by the Kuonji Temple of Mt. Minobu. This English edition contains a selection of sixteen paintings from the original with a re-edited digest of the original text.

In order that people all over the world learn about St. Nichiren and his faith, publishing projects have been a business concern of the Nichiren-shu Asian Buddhist Friendship Association.

Uenaka Chokusai, the artist who created the scenes for this publication, is ranked as a great master of the traditional Tosa-e painting school. In completing this pictorial biography of St. Nichiren, he gave great attention to detail. After carefully researching the period, he took care to make sure that the elements of St. Nichiren’s era-Kamakura period (1192-1333) customs, mannerisms, clothing and architecture-were illustrated accurately.

In the original Japanese edition, the explanatory text was summarized and edited into an English digest by Junpei Kawasaki. However, in order to make the text more understandable it has been given a standardized style, certain areas have been altered or retranslated, and the whole text has been rechecked for accuracy and readability. This has been accomplished through the cooperation of David A. Hall, a Ph.D. candidate in Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. The Publishing of this English edition is being made possible through the assistance of Nichiren-shu.

Kyoyu Fujii, Editor
President, Nichiren-shu Asian Buddhist Friendship Association Tokyo, July 1986

The text and images are displayed on the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church website. A PDF copy of the booklet is also available for download.

I’m using cropped versions of some of these images in the header of my website.