Nichiji

Nichiji
日持
Religion	Buddhism
School	Nichiren Buddhism
Sect	Opposed to Nikkō
Temple	Lìhuà Temple
Personal
Born	1250 in Suruga Province
Died	after 1304 in Xuanhua District
Religious career
Teacher	Nichiren
Students	Nishote

Nichiji (日持; February 10, 1250–after 1304), also known as Kaikō, was a Buddhist disciple of Nichiren who traveled to Hokkaido, Siberia, and China.

Nichiji was born in Suruga Province, the second child of a large and powerful family. At first he studied to become a Tendai priest but soon he joined Nichiren as one of his initial followers.

Nichiji was one of the "six chosen disciples" of Nichiren, but was also a disciple of Nikkō. After Nichiren died in 1282, Nichiji established Eishō-ji, now Ren'ei-ji (蓮永寺) in Shizuoka. But soon, relations with Nikkō became strained.^[1] He set out on a missionary journey on January 1, 1295.^[2] His plan was to walk to Hakodate, Hokkaidō and from there proceed to Xanadu in order to convert the Mongols.^[3] While the Mongols appear frequently in Nichiren's writings as a fearsome force which Japan must tame, little was known about them and the city of Xanadu was just as mysterious in Japan as it seems to us today.

For many centuries it was unknown what happened to Nichiji after he left Japan.^[4] According to legend, he founded a temple in northern Japan and caught a new fish in Hokkaido that he named hokke, after the Lotus Sutra (法華, hokke^?);^[5] even in legends it was unclear if he ever reached China alive. In 1936, though, a Japanese tourist discovered his gohonzon and relics in a remote region of China, and in 1989 these relics were carbon dated and determined by Tokyo University researchers to be most probably authentic.^[6] Thanks to his inscriptions on the relics, it is now known that he landed in China in 1298, met some Western Xia Buddhists on the road and decided on their advice to settle in Xuanhua District instead of Xanadu. In Xuanhua, he founded Lìhuà Temple (立化寺塔; Japanese: Rikkai-ji).,^[3] and a few Chinese residents converted to Nichiren Buddhism under his tutelage, including an old man named Nishote whom he mentions as his chief disciple. He died sometime after 1304.

References

1. ^ Daigan and Alicia Matsunaga. Foundation of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhist Books International, 1974. vol. 2, p. 173 ISBN 0914910264.
2. ^ Masaharu Anesaki. Nichiren, the Buddhist prophet. Harvard University Press, 1916. p.160 ISBN 0559679203
3. ^ ^{a b} Joshua A. Fogel. The literature of travel in the Japanese rediscovery of China, 1862-1945 ISBN 0804725675. Stanford University Press, 1996. p. 29.
4. ^ Shimpan Bukkyō Tetsugaku Daijiten, p. 1368
5. ^ (Japanese) Nichiren-shu biography
6. ^ (Japanese) Relics of Nichiji

Further reading

• Li Narangoa. Japanische Religionspolitik in der Mongolei 1932-1945. Reformbestrebungen und Dialog zwischen japanischem und mongolischem Buddhismus. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998.
• Daniel B. Montgomery. Fire in the Lotus: The Dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren. Thorsons, 1991.
• 前嶋 信次 . "日持上人の大陸渡航について―宣化出土遺物を中心として "
• 日持上人開教の事跡－津軽十三湊をめぐって－". Nichiren Buddhism Modern Religious Institute.
• 劇画宗門史「日持上人」
• http://homepage1.nifty.com/tkawase/osigoto/mjbpa.pdf

External links

External images
	(Chinese) Photo of Lìhuà Temple

• Treasures of Senka - documentary in English
• (Japanese) Hakodate News

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