The following essay by Ikeda Sensei was translated from the March 29, 2001, issue of the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper, Seikyo Shimbun.
On the 12th day of the ninth month of the eighth year of the Bun’ei era (1271), a noisy mob surrounded Nichiren Daishonin’s dwelling at Matsubagayatsu in Kamakura. Hei no Saemon, the most powerful figure in the military government, stormed the building with several hundred soldiers in tow. Nichiren declared in a ringing voice: “How amusing! Look at Hei no Saemon gone mad! You gentlemen have just toppled the pillar of Japan” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 766).
The arrogant priest Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji temple in Kamakura was behind this act of violence. The Daishonin had refuted Ryokan’s erroneous teachings, exposed his hypocrisy and triumphed over him in a contest to pray for rain. Ryokan was no match for Nichiren—neither in respect to the teachings he preached and his personal character nor in actual proof of his practice. Therefore, his only alternative was to paint the Daishonin as a villain. And so he devised a scheme. He maligned Nichiren to powerful figures and their wives, spreading incredibly vicious and base lies about him. The military government was already in an uproar over the impending invasion of Japan by the Mongols—the general punishment that the Daishonin had predicted would befall the country if the government failed to heed his warnings as detailed in the treatise “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land.”
True leaders, if they cared for their nation’s fate, would humbly and earnestly listen to the truthful arguments of a great sage. But the rulers of the military government of Nichiren’s day cared little for the happiness of the people. They merely exploited the crisis that the nation faced to strengthen their own hold on power. And they plotted to destroy the person who was the nation’s true treasure, because he stood in their way.
Priests mad with jealousy working hand in glove with authorities blinded by arrogance—this is the pattern that persecutions against the Soka Gakkai, an organization carrying out the Buddha’s will and intent, have followed in recent years.
After the Daishonin was apprehended by Hei no Saemon’s men, he was paraded through the streets of Kamakura like a traitor and then taken to the residence of Hojo Nobutoki, who was the constable of Sado Island, the place to which he was to be exiled. But Hei no Saemon’s men came and removed him from the premises in the middle of the night. They planned to execute him at Tatsunokuchi. This was not a legal sentence of death; it was an unsanctioned private execution plotted by Hei no Saemon and his cohorts. It all unfolded under the cover of darkness. They were jealous and afraid of the sun of truth. Lurking in darkness, the insidious nature of power sharpened its cruel sword.
On Wakamiya Avenue, en route to the execution grounds at Tatsunokuchi, Nichiren Daishonin dismounted from his horse and, facing Hachiman Shrine, sternly reproved Great Bodhisattva Hachiman: “Now I, Nichiren, am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sutra in all of Japan, and am entirely without guilt. … You had better do something about it [my predicament] right away!” (WND-1, 766–67). It was a lion’s roar of rebuke at the heavenly deities—the protective functions of the universe—who had promised at the assembly where the Lotus Sutra was preached to safeguard the practitioner of the correct teaching.
Then, when they reached Yui Beach, Nichiren sent a boy named Kumao to inform Shijo Kingo of his impending execution. Rushing from the house, without even stopping to put on his shoes, Shijo Kingo hastened to the Daishonin’s side with his three brothers. Nichiren had called on his most trustworthy lay disciple to witness this momentous event.
Though Tatsunokuchi is called an “execution ground,” it seems that there were no special facilities or buildings. A mat was simply spread over the sand for the beheading. The soldier had his sword raised and ready to perform the execution. Shijo Kingo said, “These are your last moments” (WND-1, 767), and started weeping, but the Daishonin chided him, saying that he should laugh at such a joyful occasion.
Then it happened.
Suddenly, from the direction of Enoshima, a brilliant orb as bright as the moon streaked across the sky. The pitch blackness was illuminated like a moonlit night. The soldier holding the sword was blinded by the object’s dazzling brightness and fell to the ground, and the others, struck with fear, ran off into the distance.
What was this shining object? Research suggests that it was a fragment from a meteor stream in the region of the Aries and Taurus constellations. This was the theory of the late Dr. Hideo Hirose (1901–81), an eminent Japanese astronomer, who was a former director of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory and professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo. He hypothesized that the appearance of the bright object in the sky on the night of the 12th day of the ninth month of the eighth year of the Bun’ei era (1271) took place around the time or a short time after the moon set, which he calculated to be 3:44 a.m. [on the 13th day]. Nichiren Daishonin writes that a brilliant orb burst through the darkness, shooting across the sky from southeast to northwest. After analyzing all of the data, Dr. Hirose concluded that the object that appeared at about 4 a.m. was a huge meteor, moving at an altitude of 34 degrees and an azimuth of 79 degrees from south to west. Based on the time of the event, the astronomer determined that the bright object was probably a meteor from the Taurid-Arietid meteor stream that originated from Encke’s Comet.
A great light blazed in the darkness at the very moment that Nichiren Daishonin was about to be beheaded. He called out to the soldiers who had fled, telling them that if they were going to cut off his head they should do it quickly, before the dawn, but they were afraid and would not approach.
Eventually, from far beyond the waves, a dot of crimson began to glow faintly, spreading out to the left and right and swelling upward until the horizon could be seen. Dawn had arrived. The sun’s rays gained rapidly in strength and radiance, making the sea sparkle and lighting the sky. The clouds were dyed in rainbow colors.
The shining golden sun rose majestically.
This was the moment in which the Buddhism of the Sun broke through the profound darkness of fundamental delusion to illuminate the earth with its brilliance.
To be continued in an upcoming issue.
September 6, 2024, World Tribune, pp. 2–3
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