Comments on: Nichiren, not nationalism?

By: Mark Rogow

Mark Rogow — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:31:09 +0000

Nichiren wasn’t a nationalist. He was a believer in and foremost practitioner of the exclusive faith and practice of the Lotus Sutra. This was his desire for the entire world not only “the little island country of Japan” as he called it. He also believed in the Mahayana Paranirvana Sutra which he classified as belonging to the Lotus Sutra period of the Buddha’s preaching. The Nirvana Sutra does condone war in protection of the Dharma and Dharma practitioners. He once wrote that the Nembutsu priests should be beheaded but overwhelmingly he was absolutely peaceful, never having even killed an ant intentially. He often spoke about the absolute worth and preciousness of human life. That some have distorted his teachings in no way is the fault of Nichiren. I am a practitioner of the Kempon Hokke.

Mark

By: Overthinker

Overthinker — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:52:43 +0000

Hmmm. Reading Toyama Shigeru’s “Showa-shi,” I note that the leader of the Ketsumeidan, the ‘one-man one-kill’ terrorist society of the 1930s that killed off Baron Dan and Inoue Junnnosuke had as its leader the *Nichiren* priest Inoue Nisshou….

While I don’t think it was more important than nationalism, Nichiren’s role certainly needs looking at….

By: Overthinker

Overthinker — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 00:12:03 +0000

Ishihara’s devotion to Nichiren is well known, though it’s interesting to see its popularity among the Imperial Way faction. Since Nichiren started out as a radical, almost revolutionary sect, there might be a connection there – they certainly liked to see themselves as “romantic and daring”, the instigators of a new Showa Restoration etc, but since the book in question is apparently “fictionalized history” I would be leery of reading too much into it without more research, and especially of toppling Nationalism and replacing it with Nichirenism.

The Shanghai Incident was apparently deliberately started to distract global attention from the creation of Manchukuo – it was instigated by higher levels, especially by one Tanaka Ryukichi, Military Attaché to the Shanghai Consulate. Five priests and laypersons from the Nihonsan Myouhouji (hmmm…sounds Nichiren to me…) were attacked by Chinese workers outside a factory. A group of young Japanese swore revenge, and attacked. Tanaka later confessed that the Chinese had been bought off to attack the priests, and that the revenge attack had been directed by an army man.

By: ponta

ponta — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:17:16 +0000

I am curious about Ishiwara kanji as a strategist rather than believer in Lotus Sutra.
(ishihara kanji)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9F%B3%E5%8E%9F%E8%8E%9E%E7%88%BE
(lotus sutra)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9F%B3%E5%8E%9F%E8%8E%9E%E7%88%BE
(For some reason, Ishihara shintaro, Tokyo governor is also a believer in Lotus Sutra)

BTW here is oft quoted passage by Ishiwara kanji

Haven’t you heard of Perry? Don’t you know anything your country’s history?….Tokugawa Japan believed in isolation; it didn’t want to have anything to do with other countries and had its doors locked tightly. then along came Perry from your country in his black ships to open those doors; he aimed his big guns at Japan and warned, “If you don’t deal with us, look out for these;open your doors, and negotiate with other countries too.” And then when Japan did open its doors and tried dealing with other countries, it learned that all those countries were a fearfully aggressive lot. And so for its own defense it took your country as its teacher and set about learning how to be aggressive. You might say we became your disciples. Why don’t you subpoena Perry from the other world and try him as a war criminal?

And links to his books,
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000230/card1154.html

By: bingobangoboy

bingobangoboy — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:49:23 +0000

I’m also quite weary of the Nichiren schools (particulary Soka Gakkai, just because of it high profile). For myself, and I think many Westerners, one of the really refreshing things about Buddhism (especially the Japanese varieties) is its aloof, non-evangelical, live & let live style. It’s so nice to be able to go through daily life without dealing with any number of faiths competing to see how much crap they can shove down your throat, and then condemning you if you don’t cough up the other guy’s & beg them for more of theirs. But for many Japanese, I think the Nichiren schools (and sometimes, Christianity) are seen as more principled than anything-goes mainstream Buddhism, which some have come to view as a hypocritical, valueless money-making venture. So I can see the appeal.
This sounds like an interesting book; when religion is mentioned in connection with the Wartime era, it’s usually Shinto rather than Buddhism. I would only caution that Soka Gakkai and orthodox Nichiren are always engaged in sneaky, mean-spirited PR war against each other, so even though I don’t like either, I take any criticism of them with a grain of salt. Especially if it appears in the Japan Times, which seems to have some kind of close connection with Soka Gakkai.
http://www.fccj.or.jp/~fccjyod2/node/1215

By: tomojiro

tomojiro — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:13:25 +0000

Well the famous (notorious ) war time slogan “Hakkou Ichiu (八紘一宇)” was adopted in 1940 by Prime minister Konoe, who was also inspired by Tanaka Chigaku, the Nichiren sect founder which the JT articles mentions.

It is said that the famous post war slogan of Sasagawa Ryoichi “All the human are brothers (人類皆兄弟)” is just a “modern” translation of the word 八紘一宇.

Actually religion played an important and very complex part in pre war Japan militarism, pan-asianism, and to some extend, “fascism (although I am still not sure whether you can call pre-war Japanese regime fascism)” .

Shinto, Buddhist sects, and new religions like Oomoto kyo is an example.

By: James A

James A — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:59:08 +0000

Funnily enough, someone who follows Nichiren at a community meeting that a go to managed to hook me into going to a Nichiren prayer meeting. He really wants me to come to another meeting but I’m not really interested. Don’t really care for religions that are rather pushy about finding convertants whether it be Christianity, Mormonism, or Nichiren.

From what I saw of Nichiren, it doesn’t appear that they have anything similar to the whole apocalyptic/rapture idea the Fundies are such big fans of. Seems more like the whole karma/nirvana bit.

It would be interesting to see more studies on religion and empire-building in the case of the Japanese Empire, but the strength of religion doesn’t strike me as quite so strong as say Spain’s empire in the Americas, or Britain’s empire in Africa and India. I could be wrong though.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:13:24 +0000

I don’t know if they were same sects or not, but small groups of Japanese nationalist Buddhist monks instigated a riot in Shanghai in early 1930s. This led to Battle of Shanghai, where Nationalist (German trained) army battled at first IJN sailors/marines and then the IJA.