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INTRODUCTION
Travel is the act of human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories, and through travel, we can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, thus gaining a deeper understanding of history and broadening our own horizons. In the previous article, I described a trip to the Netherlands. This time I will discuss Nichiren and Kuonji Temple on Mount Minobu in Yamanashi Prefecture.
Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra
Nichiren was born in Kominato, facing the Pacific Ocean in Awa Province (present-day southern Chiba Prefecture), in the early Kamakura Period (1222), the year after the Jokyu Rebellion that marked the end of the court nobles’ rule, as described in “Kaido yuku – Miura Peninsula Ki“. At the age of twelve, he entered a local temple, Seichoji, and at the age of sixteen, he officially became a priest, spending ten years from twenty-one to thirty-two studying at Kamakura, Hieizan, Koyasan, Shitennoji, and other temples before returning to Seichoji.
Nichiren Shoshu regards the Lotus Sutra as the one and only Lotus Sutra, as described in “The Lotus Sutra with a Model Change in the Teachings of the Prajnaparamita Sutra” and regards the five characters of “Myoho-renge-kyo” as the name of the Buddha and the word “Nam-Myoho-renge-kyo” as a way to return one’s life. The practice of repeatedly chanting “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” was called “Shodai,” and this practice was the most important of all the various practices.
The Lotus Sutra is a representative scripture of Mahayana Buddhism, which was established in the early stages of Mahayana Buddhism, and it teaches the Buddhist idea that everyone is equally capable of attaining Buddhahood. It was introduced to Japan along with Buddhism during the reign of Prince Shotoku.
Chigi, the founder of the Tendai sect of Buddhism in China, classified and judged such sutras as the “Prajnaparamita Sutra,” “Lotus Sutra,” “Kegon Sutra,” “Vimala Sutra,” and “Agong Sutra” and said that the “Lotus Sutra” is the most superior teaching that the Buddha really meant. (“Lotus Sutra” because it was the most strongly asserted teaching that “anyone can become a Buddha.”)
Hieizan, which is mentioned in the article “On the Roads of Eizan (Saicho and the Tendai Sect)” was founded by Saicho as a “general university” to study Buddhism in general, focusing on the Lotus Sutra, which he regarded as a synthesis of all Buddhist teachings.
Later, Honen of the Jodo sect, Shinran of the Jodo Shin sect, Eisai of the Rinzai sect, and Dogen of the Soto sect were all graduates of Hieizan College, which means that most Japanese sects were more or less influenced by the “Lotus Sutra” and incorporated its teachings in their own doctrine in some form. The Lotus Sutra can be said to be the base of all Japanese Buddhism.
The Myoho-hoke-kyo consists of twenty-eight chapters (han). Reading the sutra as a whole, one’s interpretation will differ depending on which part of the sutra one focuses on, since there are teachings that are only partially written in the sutra, and there are discrepancies in the content of the teachings between the first half and the second half of the sutra. One of the reasons for this division is the difference in interpretation of the sutra, depending on which part of the sutra one focuses on.
As mentioned above, the most significant characteristic of the Lotus Sutra is the idea that anyone can become a Buddha, which differs greatly from the idea of the early Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which advocated the “Sanjyo” philosophy, which held that only some people who had achieved special training could become Buddhas. The Lotus Sutra, moreover, does not claim to be the Buddha, but rather to be the Buddha himself.
Furthermore, the Lotus Sutra goes beyond the concept of “emptiness,” an important keyword in the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and says, “If you believe in this sutra, without thinking about this and that, all problems will be solved. He asserts, “To live while praising this sutra is the path of a bodhisattva on the way to Buddha.
Nichiren affirmed only the Lotus Sutra and rejected other sutras and sects, and evil laws other than the Lotus Sutra were spread, causing the good deities who should have protected the land to abandon Japan. The Ritsuryo system, which had taxed taxation on a per capita basis, was no longer able to cope with the increase in population, and taxation was shifted to a per-land basis. He wrote the “Rissho Ankoku Ron” (The Rissho Ankoku Theory) and submitted it to Hojo Tokiyori, the ruler of the time.
He was exiled to Izu and Ito, but was forgiven three years later, and again presented his “Rissho Ankoku Ron” (Rissho Ankoku Ron), this time to Sado Island, where he was almost assassinated before being exiled to the island. When he was released from Sado and returned to Kamakura, the first attack by the Mongolian invaders occurred, as described in “On the Road to Karatsu, Hirado, Sasebo, and Nagasaki” and he appealed to the Shogunate that the Mongolian invaders would come again if the situation continued as is, but the Shogunate did not take up his appeal and put pressure on Nichiren (actually, a second attack by the Mongolians also occurred).
In order to escape this pressure, Nichiren left Kamakura and settled in Mount Minobu in Yamanashi Prefecture, where he was offered a temple by the local lord, Hakii (Nanbu) Sanenaga (founder of the Hachinohe clan in Aomori, as described in “Kaido yuku – Mutsu no Michi“).
Kuonji Temple
Nichiren Shoshu likened Mt. Mishuku to Mt. Reishi, a holy place in India where the Buddha is said to have preached the Lotus Sutra, and Kuon-ji Temple, the head temple of Nichiren Shoshu, was built on Mt.
From Kofu, take the JR Chuo Honsen line from Shinjuku to Minobuji Station (1 hour and 40 minutes by express train), then transfer to the Minobuji Line, and from there take another express train to Minobuji Station (1 hour). By car, take the Chuo Expressway to Futaba JCT, transfer to the Chubu-Transversal Highway, and get off at the Minobuyama Interchange.
To get to Kuonji Temple, pass through the entrance called Sanmon.
The approach to the temple, called the Bodhi ladder, with two hundred and eighty-seven steps and one hundred and four meters high, stretches straight ahead.
This approach is comparable in length to the long approach to Muroji Temple in Nara, but each step is nearly twice as long as an ordinary staircase, yet only half as deep, so it feels more like climbing a cliff than climbing stairs.
Bodhi in “Bodhi ladder” represents the state of enlightenment, and “ladder” means “stairway to enlightenment,” making it appropriate to climb this stairway as a “line. The easy paths that do not use these stairs are connected as Otokozaka (male slope) and Onozaka (female slope).
In the vicinity of Kuon-ji Temple, visitors can be seen beating a fan-shaped drum called a yuba (fan drum), and chanting the Buddhist chant of “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” to the regular rhythm of the drum.
This is unique to Nichiren Shoshu and is not often seen in other sects.
The main hall and several other halls, including the Soshidō Hall, are located halfway up the mountain after the approach to the temple. A mountain path leads from the left side of the main hall to the inner sanctuary at the top of the mountain, which takes more than two hours to walk.
At the top, visitors can enjoy a spectacular view of Mt.
In the next article, we will discuss Hungary, a country that did not make it to the street.
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