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10. Ryokan: A Religious Authority
Persecuting Believers of Nichiren Buddhism |
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Shin Yatomi
SGI-USA
Study department leader
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Ryokan
(1217-1303), chief priest of Gokuraku-ji temple,
is considered as the third kind of the three powerful
enemies.
The third of three powerful enemy, according to
Chinese Buddhist scholar Mialo, is “the arrogance
and presumption of those who pretend to be sages”
or arrogant false sages.
This third category is described as priests who
pretend to be sages and who are revered as such,
but when encountering the practitioners of the Lotus
Sutra become fearful of losing fame or profit and
induce secular authorities to persecute them. |
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Ryokan (1217-1303), chief priest of Gokuraku-ji
temple, is considered as the third kind of the three powerful
enemies. In 1259, Hojo Shigetoki, deputy regent of the
shogunate government, built Gokuraku-ji temple: and named
Ryokan its chief priest. He was influential among the
government officials, including their wives. He also undertook
a number of social welfare projects, building hospitals,
roads, etc. On the surface, he was a learned priest who
observed the Hinayana rules of strict discipline expounded
in the Ritsu sect and a benevolent protector of the people.
Ryokan, therefore, was revered widely by the people of
Kamakura as a saint.
In reality, however, Ryokan used these government projects
to accumulate his own wealth. In addition, he took advantage
of his connections with government officials to gain more
influence in religious circles.The Daishonin saw through
Ryokan's true nature and severely refuted the errors of
the Ritsu sect.
During the crucial months of late spring and early summer
1271, the traditional rainy season, Kamakura suffered
a drought. On June 18, the government implored Ryokan
to pray for rain. Upon hearing that Ryokan was to pray
for rain, the Daishonin sent him a written challenge,
to the effect that: If it rains in seven days, I will
discard my assertion and become a disciple of Ryokan.
If it does not rain, however, you should admit that your
teachings have been erroneous, and you should take faith
in the Lotus Sutra, together with your disciples.”
The challenge, which Ryokan had been so confident of winning,
only turned out to be a source of humiliation, once his
prayers had failed. Rather than discard his belief, however,
he schemed to rid himself of his rival once and for all.
Revered as a great humanitarian and the foremost Buddhist
scholar in the city, Ryokan felt the Daishonin's continual
challenges and accusations were intolerable. The city's
Buddhist elders agreed, and they conspired with him to
lure the Daishonin into a debate with a stand-in priest
named Gyobin.
Not to be outsmarted, the Daishonin countered Gyobin's
letter of inquiry by insisting that the debate be proposed
to the government and officially authorized as an open
religious debate. Ryokan and the others realized he had
called their bluff. Using Gyobin's name, they then filed
charges against the Daishonin for disturbing the public
order. Under law, he was required to respond to the charges
in writing, and again took the offensive.
The Daishonin refuted the various sects by citing the
Buddhist scriptures and accused Ryokan and the priests
of instigating a plot against him. The government forwarded
his letter to the plaintiffs so they could offer a rebuttal,
but they had been effectively silenced –for the
time being.
The priests then used their influence among the wives
of the government officials to spread rumors about the
Daishonin. As a result, Nichiren Daishonin was summoned
for interrogation on September 10, 1271. Hei no Saemon,
deputy director of the Office of Military and Police Affairs,
took charge of the inquiry. Most likely it was their first
meeting, but Hei no Saemon seems to have been clearly
on the side of the established order and prejudiced against
the Daishanin. Actually, Hei no Saeman, in conspiracy
with Ryokan and other senior priests of Komakura, had
already decided to do away with the Daishonin.
The Daishonin took this opportunity to remonstrate with
Hei no Saemon, predicting the outbreak of internal strife
and also foreign invasion if the government punished him
unlawfully. Hei no Saemon, having no justification for
pronouncing the sentence himself, let the Daishonin go.
But by the afternoon of September 12, official policy
toward the Daishonin had been decided, and Hei no Saemon
and several hundred warriors rode to the Daishonin's dwelling
at Matsubagayatsu and arrested him. Shofu-bo, one of the
party, seized a scroll of the fifth volume of the Lotus
Sutra from inside the Daishonin's robe and struck him
across the face with it (the fifth volume contains the
Kanji, or thirteenth, chapter, which predicts that the
votaries of the Lotus Sutra will be attacked with swords
and stoves and will face the three powerful enemies).Hei
no Saemon took the Daishonin to the regent, where he had
the Daishonin charged with treason and sentenced to exile
on Sado Island under the supervision of Hojo Nobutoki,
the constable of Sado. The Daishonin was then remanded
to Nobutoki's custody. He was to be escorted by Hei no
Saemon's men from Nobutokj's place to the mansion of Homma
Shigetsura, Nobutoki's steward and the deputy constable
of Sado. However, Hei no Saemon decided on his own to
behead the Daishonin before the party reached Homma's
place.
He and his men left Nobutokj's residence with their prisoner
late at night on the twelfth.
As the party passed Hachiman Shrine at Tsurugaoka, the
Daishonin reprimanded Great Bodhisattva Hachiman for not
protecting the votary of the Lotus Sutra, as the bodhisattva
had promised to do when the Buddha expounded the Lotus
Sutra at Eagle Peak. He also sent a messenger to Shijo
Kingo, who hurried to his side, determined to die with
the Daishonin. At the execution site, the Daishonin chanted
daimoku with perfect composure and chided Shijo Kingo
for his grief, saying that there is no greater fortune
than to give one's life for the Lotus Sutra.
At the moment when the Daishonin was about to be beheaded,
a luminous abject shot across the sky from the southeast,
terrifying the soldiers to the extent that they were incapable
of carrying out the execution. The Daishonin was then
placed in custody at Homma's residence at Echi according
to the original plan for about one month, and on October
10, 1271, he left Echi under escort for his place of banishment
on Sado.
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What lessons can you learn
from the life of Ryokan? |
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In terms of the Buddhist
principle of mutual possession of the ten worlds,
what does Ryokan mean to you? |
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Ryokan and other senior priests, together with Hei no
Saemon, schemed to separate the Daishonin and his followers
once and for all by having him beheaded, thus destroying
the Daishonin's Buddhism. Once they realized they could
not execute the Daishonin, however, they changed their
plan. By banishing the Daishonin to distant Sado and discrediting
him as a criminal, they tried to confuse his followers
in Kamakura and effectively disband the kosen-rufu movement.
Furthermore, Ryokan and other senior priests, in league
with the government, started to persecute the Daishonin's
disciples severely. As the Daishonin writes, “Many
of my disciples had their land seized by the government,
and were then disowned or driven from their lords' estates
(Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p.794).
The exile to Sado was a severe winter of religious oppression
for the Daishonin and his disciples who were still trying
to continue their efforts for kosen-rufu, encouraging
and protecting fellow believers. Many, however, abandoned
their faith. And some even criticized the Daishonin and
began to sway other believers. The Daishonin describes
the situation, by saying, “Shofu-bo, Noto-bo and
Nagoe-no-ama were once Nichiren's disciples. Greedy, cowardly
and ignorant, they nonetheless let themselves pass for
wise people. When persecutions befell me, they took advantage
of these to convince many of my followers to drop out
(Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p.800).
For many years following, he harassed the Daishonin and
his disciples, both openly and covertly.
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(from Seikyo Times, July,
1991)
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