Nichinyo's Dilemma and His Power Game at Nichiren Shoshu

In the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, 27 years has passed since Nikken stole the position of high priest and took over the school. This year also marks one year since Nichinyo Hayase inherited the lineage of the Nichiren Shoshu. His tenure has been battered by the failures of the Nichiren Shoshu corporation during the time of Nikken.

It appears that the corporation is on the verge of bankruptcy. More than 200 local temples can hardly make a living without financial assistance from head temple. For example, Dosen-ji temple of Hokkaido has closed because they lost most of their lay members. More temples are on the verge of closure, and have less than 10 lay members.

Nichinyo Hayase has inherited a company with enormous debts, and now he has to clean up the mess created by former high priest Nikken. And Nikken's friends are all still in high positions. Shin'ei Yagi, Nikken's first disciple, took the position of School Director of General Administration, while Shinsho Abe, Nikken's son, took the position of Director of General Affairs. These two designated 60 temples as problems and conducted a guidance tour to all of them, along with Hokkeko leaders. This strategy backfired, and two priests resigned after they were visited. Apparently, the guidance tour was not very encouraging.

Nichinyo is no longer passive and now he is appointing his own allies to positions of importance. He appointed Jicho Sato as Board Chief and Gyoyu Urushibara as Overseas Bureau Chief. These two henchmen of the Hayase family are working to establish Nichinyo's influence.

Nichinyo has revised financial aid to overseas temples. During the tenure of the Nikken, every year, enormous monetary aid was made available to temples in U.S. Nikken wanted to put on an impressive show and make U.S. temples look like they were growing. Nichinyo, however, will not follow this example; he has stopped sending money to the U.S.

Also, Nichinyo doesn't hesitate to say that the "Seattle incident court case ended with failure for Nichiren Shoshu." It will be interesting to see how he will move in the future.

Over ten years ago, Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated Soka Gakkai, the one organization promoting world peace and propagation of this Buddhism, and Nichiren Shoshu no longer carries the heritage of the faith.

"An animal dressed in priestly robes" (WND, p. 760); "animals are to kill or be killed" (WND, p. 1026); or "dog-like priests" (WND, p. 191) - these quotes exactly describe the power game among in Nichiren Shoshu. And we are beginning to see the effects of their strategy.

(Excerpted and translated based on Shin Kaikaku Tsushin #63, dated December 12, 2006)