Notes - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 226

1 Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito
1 Nichiren regarded as the best of the Chinese translations Kam - rajı

- va ' s translation
of the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law (in Sanskrit, Saddharma-pundarı

- ka-s - tra;
in Chinese, Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching; in Japanese, My - h - -renge-ky - ), from 406, which
was the most popular and made the basis for Tientai ' s teachings that spread in China
and Japan.
2 Namu[o]-Amida-Butsu - or, Homage to Amida Buddha. This was in some cases
shortened to Nanmaida when chanted rapidly.
3 The Chinese characters introduced into Japan are likely to have been pronounced
Meuhau-renkwe-keu. As the diphthong sound followed the nasal sound trans-
formed into a sequential voicing, or rhythmical vocalisation, and the ' k ' sound was
transformed into a ' g ' sound making it Meuhau-rengwe-keu. This tradition prob-
ably carried over until around Nichiren ' s time. Nichiren added the word Namu,
derived from the Sanskrit word namas, likely making it Namu-meuhau-rengwe-keu,
slightly different from its modern pronunciation. In the sixteenth through to the
seventeenth centuries, there was a large change in Japanese pronunciation, and
only in the eighteenth century did it come to be pronounced My - h - -renge-ky - .Itis
dicult to say with certainty exactly how Nichiren pronounced the title as he
always used Chinese characters rather than kana to write it.
4 The chanting of Namu-my - ho-renge-ky - probably with the supporting practice of
reciting parts of the Hoben-pon (Expedient Means chapter) and the Nyoraijuy -
(The Life Span of the Thus Come One) of the Lotus Sutra.
5 For a more thorough discussion of against whom Nichiren was positioning himself,
see Dolce (1999).
6 Zhiyi (Jpn. Chigi) 538 - 97, who is considered Tientai ' is founder; Zhanran (Jpn. Tannen)

82, sixth Tientai patriarch; and Saich - 767 822, founder of Japanese Tendai.

7 Latter Day of the Law (Mapp - ). Widely believed that the historical time since
Shakyamuni was divided into three periods, the Former Day of the Law, the
Middle Day of the Law and the Latter Day of the Law, in Nichiren ' s time, the last
period was believed to have begun around AD 1052. While this period was char-
acterised by decadence, according to the Lotus Sutra, it was a time in which its
teachings would spread.
8 In ' On Persecutions Befalling the Buddha ' , written the second year of Koan
(October 1279) (WND-1, 996), Nichiren states, ' For me it took twenty-seven years '
to fulfil his purpose in life. Nichiren Sh - sh - claims his purpose was to establish the
particular honzon they refer to as the dai-gohonzon; other Nichiren sects dispute
this. Different interpretations as to what constitutes Nichiren ' is purpose is where the
dispute lays. The writing itself is considered Nichiren ' s.
9 See Appendix A for an overview of today ' s organisational structure.
10 Other Nichiren schools refer to him as Nichiren Shonin, with the view that Sha-
kyamuni is the Buddha, and Nichiren a bodhisattva.
11 Nichiren gives an autobiographical account of this in various places in his writings
(WND-1).
12 For a more detailed discussion on the issue of Nichiren Sh - sh - and Soka Gakkai
see Bocking (1994) and Hurst (2000).
13 Toda also published a book on mathematics that became a bestseller in Japan, and
had 17 listed companies, which were lost during the war.
14 This was not necessarily in agreement with some factions of Nichiren Sh - sh - ,
which advocated the erection of a national high sanctuary as part of the concept of
- butsumy - g - .
15 These two opposing factions, although sometimes more on an ideological than a
practical level (Christensen 2000), formed the basic political framework expected to
work as the British two-party system.

711 - -