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Konichi-Bo Gosho -659 83 Letter to Konichi-bo N the ninth month of the eighth home. Whenever he saw the moon rise Iyear of Bun’ei (), with the cycli- in the east, he would console himself cal sign kanoto-hitsuji, I incurred the by thinking that the same moon must wrath of the ruler and was exiled to be shining above Mount Mikasa in Sado Island in the northern sea. While his native province, and that the peo- I was living in Kamakura in Sagami ple there must even at that moment Province, I somehow longed for Awa be gazing at it. Just when I was over- Province since it was my birthplace. whelmed by similar longings for home, Yet though it was my homeland, some- I received from my native province the thing about how the people there felt robe you had entrusted to someone toward me made it difficult for me journeying to Sado Island. Su Wu’s life to be on close terms with them, so I was sustained by a mere letter tied to a rarely went to visit. I then incurred the wild goose’s leg, while I actually re- ruler’s wrath and was to have been put ceived such clothing! His joy could not to death, but instead I was banished possibly have compared to mine. from Sagami Province. It seemed that, The people of this country are con- unless some extraordinary circumstance tinually deceived by the Nembutsu arose, I could never return to Kama- priests, or by the Zen, Precepts, or True kura, and therefore I would never again Word schools. Thus they act outwardly be able to visit my parents’ grave. As I as though they revere the Lotus Sutra, continued to think this way, I was con- but in their hearts they do not believe sumed by remorse, feeling that I want- in it. Therefore, although I, Nichiren, ed to go there immediately. Why, I do not think that I have done anything lamented, before finding myself in this particularly wrong, when I assert the predicament, had I not crossed seas and supremacy of the Lotus Sutra, they all traversed mountains every day, or even resent me, just as the people in the once a month, to visit my parents’ Latter Day of the Law of Awesome grave and to inquire after my teacher?1 Sound King Buddha detested Bodhi- Su Wu2 was a prisoner in the land of sattva Never Disparaging. From the the northern barbarians for nineteen ruler on down to the common people, years. He envied the wild geese as they they hate even to hear my name, let migrated southward. Nakamaro3 went alone see me. Therefore, although I to T’ang China as an emissary of the was innocent of any wrongdoing, once Japanese imperial court. Years passed, exiled, I could not possibly be par- but he was not permitted to return doned. To compound matters, I had 659 -660 LETTER TO KONICHI-BO denounced the Nembutsu—which the presence and forsake the votary of the people of Japan revere more deeply Lotus Sutra? Even if you fail to protect than their own parents and more high- me, Nichiren, I will have no regrets, ly than the sun and moon—as the no matter what may happen to me. karmic cause that leads to the hell of Remember, however, what you each incessant suffering. I attacked the Zen solemnly pledged in the presence of school as the invention of the heavenly Shakyamuni Buddha, the Thus Come devil, and the True Word school as an One Many Treasures, and the Buddhas evil doctrine that will ruin the nation, of the ten directions. If you abandon and insisted that the temples of the me instead of protecting me now, will Nembutsu, Zen, and Precepts priests you not be making a great lie out of be burned down and the Nembutsu the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha priests and the others beheaded.4 I even declared that he was ‘honestly discard- went so far as to assert that the two ing expedient means’?6 You will have deceased lay priests of Saimyo-ji and deceived all the Buddhas throughout Gokuraku-ji5 had fallen into the Avi- the ten directions and the three ex- chi hell. Such was the gravity of my istences, an offense even graver than offense. Having voiced such serious Devadatta’s outrageous falsehoods and charges to all people both high and surpassing the Venerable Kokalika’s de- low, whether or not I had spoken in ceptions. Now you may be respected error, I could never again rise in the as the great heavenly king Brahma and world. Even worse, I repeated such live atop the world of form, or be re- things morning and evening and dis- vered as the Thousand-Eyed God7 and cussed them day and night. I also stern- dwell on the summit of Mount Sume- ly informed Hei no Saemon and several ru. But if you discard me, Nichiren, hundred officers that, no matter what you will become firewood to feed the punishment I might incur, I would flames of the Avichi hell and be for- not stop declaring these matters. There- ever confined to the great citadel of the fore, even if a boulder at the bottom hell of incessant suffering. If you dread of the sea that requires a thousand men committing this offense, make haste to move it were to surface by itself, to manifest some sign to the country, or if rain falling from the sky should so that I may be permitted to return fail to reach the ground, I, Nichiren, home!” still could not possibly have returned Then in the eleventh month, shortly to Kamakura. after my arrest on the twelfth day of Nevertheless, I encouraged myself the ninth month, a rebellion broke by thinking that, if the teaching of the out,8 and on the eleventh day of the Lotus Sutra was indeed true and the second month in the following year, gods of the sun and moon did not several generals, mighty protectors of abandon me, I might yet have an op- Japan, were killed in vain. It was clear portunity to return to Kamakura and that heaven had meted out its punish- also visit my parents’ grave. Climbing a ment. Apparently shaken by this inci- high mountain, I would shout these dent, the authorities released my im- words aloud: “What has happened to prisoned disciples. Brahma and Shakra, the gods of the However, I myself had not yet been sun and moon, and the four heavenly pardoned, so I continued to berate the kings? Are the Sun Goddess and Great heavenly gods all the more vehemently. Bodhisattva Hachiman no longer in Then one day, a white-headed crow this country? Do you intend to break flew overhead. I remembered that the vow you made in the Buddha’s Prince Tan of Yen had been released 660 -661 LETTER TO KONICHI-BO when a horned horse and a white- opportunity to return home in tri- headed crow appeared,9 and recalled umph, and that I would wait until such the Honorable Nichizo’s poem:10 time to visit my parents’ grave. Because “Even the mountain crow’s head / Has I feel deeply about this, I have yet to turned white. / The time for my re- travel to my birthplace. But I am so turn home / Must have come at last.” I homesick that, whenever someone says was now convinced that I would be re- that the wind is blowing from the east, leased before long. As I had expected, I rush out from my dwelling to feel the government issued a letter of par- it, and if told that clouds are gathering don on the fourteenth day of the sec- in the eastern sky, I stand in the garden ond month in the eleventh year of to watch them. With such emotions, Bun’ei (), which arrived in the my heart warms even toward those province of Sado on the eighth day of with whom I would not otherwise the third month. be friendly if they are from my native I left my dwelling on Sado on the province. Imagine, then, how beside thirteenth day of that month and myself I was with joy at receiving your reached a harbor called Maura, where letter! I opened and read it in great I spent the night of the fourteenth. I haste, only to learn that you had lost should have arrived at the harbor of your son Yashiro the year before last, Teradomari in Echigo Province on the on the eighth day of the sixth month. I fifteenth, but a gale blew us off course. had been delighted before I opened Fortunately, however, we reached Ka- your letter, but then, upon reading the shiwazaki after two days at sea, and sad news, I wished I had not opened on the following day I arrived at the it in such a hurry. I felt regret such provincial seat of Echigo. Thus, after as Urashima Taro13 must have experi- traveling for twelve days,11 I finally enced upon opening his casket. returned to Kamakura on the twenty- I never think lightly of the people sixth day of the third month. On the from my native province, nor do I eighth day of the fourth month, I had cease to care about what happens to a meeting with Hei no Saemon. As I them, even if they have caused me sor- had expected all along, my warnings row or treated me cruelly.
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