January 20, 2025
Nichiren Shonin and His Lay Followers（7）
By Rev. Kanji Tamura
The Nanjo Family (1)
The Nanjo Family (1) Nanjo Hyoe Shichiro ( ? —1265) was a rear vassal of the main branch of the Hojo clan which controlled the Kamakura Shogunate Government. As a relative of the ruling Hojo Family, the Nanjo Family originally lived in Nanjo in Izu County, but later moved to its domain of the Ueno District, Fuji County, Suruga Province (Shizuoka Prefecture).
Hence, Nichiren respectfully calls Nanjo Hyoe Shichiro “Ueno Dono” (Lord Ueno). His wife was a daughter of Matsuno Rokuro Zaemon, a steward of Iobara County. The couple had more than ten children.
Hyoe Shichiro met Nichiren in Kamakura while serving his military duty and entered the faith of the Lotus Sutra, renouncing his former faith in Amida Buddha. In 1264, he fell ill and returned to Ueno.
Nichiren wrote a letter to him dated on the 13th day of the 12th month of the first year of Bunnei (1264), showing the spiritual relief of relying on the faith in the Odaimoku of the Lotus Sutra. The original manuscript of this letter is found in fragments in many places.
Showing astonishment at hearing of the illness of Hyoe Shichiro,Nichiren writes in this letter, “There exists no rule on who leaves this world first. Those who have no illness hardly stay in this world, to say nothing of the sick. However, if you are thoughtful, you should aim at the coming world (so as to be born in the good place).”
The average life span of the Japanese in the Kamakura Period is presumed to have been 30 years. Life was unstable for both the young and old. When it is not known at all when we will die, we can value the lives of ourselves as well as those who surround us.
In the meantime, the Japanese boast the world’s longest life span today. It may be said that we have become insensitive to the value of life.
Nichiren urges Hyoe Shichiro to determine to face death squarely. Maybe his illness has taken a sudden turn for the worse.
He continues that it is difficult for us to aim at the other world by ourselves. It can be achieved only when we rely on the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha, the True Teacher of all sentient beings.
Nichiren refers to the Lotus Sutra, in which Sakyamuni Buddha claims that the entire world, the world of transmigration, is His possession. All sentient beings in the world are all His offsprings, and it is only He who can protect them.
Nichiren also asserts that Sakyamuni Buddha is our parent, teacher, and master, and warns that Amida Buddha is not our parent, or teacher, or master. It is most undutiful to be against the wishes of our parent, teacher and master.
Nichiren tells Hyoe Shichiro to stick to the faith of the Lotus Sutra, by understanding that we are now in the Latter Age of Degeneration, when the Lotus Sutra is the only teaching which proves effective. Nichiren then encourages Hyoe Shichiro to fully understand the five guides in spreading the Dharma and carry through the faith in the Daimoku.
Claiming himself to be the prime practicer of the Lotus Sutra persecuted exactly as prophesized in the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren tells Hyoe Shichiro, “to announce that you are a disciple of Nichiren,the supreme practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, to the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the Four Heavenly Kings, and Yama, the King of Hell, when you reach the other world. Then they will treat you warmly.”
Thanks to Nichiren’s considerate guidance, Hyoe Shichiro firmly retained faith in the Lotus Sutra, and died on the eighth day of the third month of the following year. Though Hyoe Shichiro was under the guidance of Nichiren for only two years, his faith in the Lotus Sutra was inherited by the family for a long time. Nichiren visited the grave of Hyoe Shichiro in the Ueno District of Fuji County after his death.
Nanjo Tokimitsu (1259—1332) succeeded as the head of the family and inherited the faith in the Lotus Sutra of Hyoe Shichiro. Although Tokimitsu lost his father while he was young, he grew to be a respectable person.
(Trans. K. S.)
(to be continued)