Published by Soka Spirit Editor
Posted on August 11, 2009
Of the six senior disciples designated by the Daishonin, all except Nikko Shonin betrayed their teacher’s will, thereby nearly destroying his teaching. On October 8, 1282, five days before his death, the Daishonin designated Nissho, Nichiro, Nikko, Niko, Nitcho and Nichiji as “main disciples” but noted that “the order of listing is irrelevant” (The Collected Essential Writings of the Fuji School, vol.8, pp.2-3). The order of the Daishonin’s designation indicates the order of conversion, not the order of seniority.
These “main disciples” were later called “the six senior priests.” The Daishonin designated the six senior priests under the leadership of Nikko Shonin to protect and spread his teachings after his death. While designating Nikko Shonin as chief priest of Kuon temple at Minobu, the Daishonin also intended the other five senior priests to continue to take leadership in their assigned areas for the further propagation of the Law. As Nichiko Hori later wrote, the Daishonin “asked them to become leaders for believers scattered in various areas and exert themselves in propagation, thus accomplishing the great desire of kosen-rufu.”
On October 13,1282, the Daishonin died at the estate of Ikegami Munenaka. His body was cremated, and Nikko Shonin brought the ashes back to Minobu for burial. At the end of January 1283, after having conducted a memorial service for the hundred-day anniversary of the Daishonin’s passing, Nikko Shonin consulted other disciples and instituted a vigil for their teacher’s grave at Minobu. Eighteen leading disciples were selected to take turns attending the grave by making offerings and prayers.
Each of the six senior priests and two of the rest were to stay at Mount Minobu for one month at a time and protect the Daishonin’s gravesite. Of the eighteen priests, nine (Nichii, Nippo, Echizen-ko, Nitchi, Nichiji, Nichimoku, Nisshu, Nichiben and Nikke) had entered the priesthood under the guardianship and guidance of Nikko Shonin, demonstrating his outstanding leadership.
When the disciples eventually returned to their respective areas, Nissho took with him an annotated copy of the Lotus Sutra, which the Daishonin had instructed to keep by his tomb. And Nichiro took a statue of Shakyamuni, which the Daishonin had received as a gift from the steward of Ito when he was exiled to Izu and had since kept by his side. The Daishonin had also willed this statue to be kept by his tomb.Nissho and Nichiro never returned to Minobu as long as Nikko Shonin remained there, completely neglecting the vigil over their teacher’s grave.
In his “Reply to Mimasaka-bo,” Nikko Shonin explains his circumstances: “[The five senior priests] seem to have abandoned the grave [of the Daishonin]. Though they propounded a teaching not to discard one’s teacher, they have already abandoned their own. It cannot be helped that they may be subjected to criticism in the secular world” (Hennentai Nichiren Daishonin Gosho, p. 1279).
When Nikko Shonin became chief priest of Kuon temple, Hakiri Sanenaga, the steward of Minobu, rejoiced: “I am pleased as if the late sage had come back once again” (Detailed Accounts of Nikko Shonin of the Fuji School, p.164). But after Niko was designated as head of the seminary at Minobu in 1285, Hakiri gradually came under his influence. Niko would not hesitate to bend the Daishonin’s Buddhism to curry favor with Hakiri, which eventually led to slanderous acts.