Nichinyo Transcribed the Gohonzon

Nichinyo recently transcribed Gohonzons and he has distributed them among Hokkeko members.

Because Nichinyo succeeded to his position due to Nikken, he naturally lacks knowledge on how to transcribe the Gohonzon. Nikken was a self-acclaimed former high priest who never received any training on transcribing the Gohonozon.

Upon viewing Nichicho's version of the Gohonzon, several award-winning Japanese sumi-ink calligraphers pointed out his haphazard writing style. They could see that Nichinyo didn't have proper training on transcription of the Gohonzon.

One calligraphy master states: "This writing shows nervous timidity and a halting brushstroke. It is as if written by elementary school students with feelings of fear or timidity; thus it ended up with childish brushstrokes. ..."

"He must have been training vigorously since he became high priest," a mid-level priest in Nichiren Shoshu shared his impression. He then pointed out number of problems on Nichinyo's Gohonzon. For example, the character "Na" of "Namu Muhengyo Bosatsu" (Bodhisattva Boundless Practices) and "Namu Taho Nyorai" (Many Treasures Thus Come One) suggests that Nichinyo wrote with standard [square] style (Kaisho, in Jpn). This makes awkward impression.

The priest also pointed out that there is too much space between Nichinyo's signature and his personal seal. This was the case for Nichiren Daishonin's Gohonzons inscribed during his life in Koan years (1278-1282). However, the majority of successive high priests have been writing their personal seals so as to almost wrap around their own signatures.

But Nichinyo's signature and personal seal have too much space between them. This alone suggests that Nichinyo has never learned the way to write a personal seal.

He also pointed out that Chinese character "sha" for "Kore o shosha shi tatematrsu" ("I respectfully transcribed this") looks more like "Ji" (letter). This phrase usually is supposed to be written at the very end. He must have being off guard at this stage, when he wrote this odd brushstroke. There are more points to make but it is now obvious that Nichinyo too didn't have proper transmission on how to transcribe the Gohonzon.

(Excerpted and translated based on Feiku No.798, dated January 11, 2007)