Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 41

1927: vol. 4, 264). Tanaka was originally a priest of the Minobu school (dis-
cussed below), but left during the Meiji period to found the Rissho Ankoku
Association, which was later named the Kokuchukai (National Pillar Society).
This view was widely criticised after the war, less for its distortion of Nichiren
than for its nationalism. This view has been re-examined by scholars showing
that instead of supporting the rulers of the nation or the emperor, Nichiren is
consistently placing the Buddha Dharma over the dharma of the ruler.
In this regard, what was for a long time seen as the most controversial
work concerning Nichiren

s view of the relationship between religion and
political power has been the Sandai hih - honj -

'

ji,or ' Treatise on the Trans-

(Sandai hih -

mission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas ' sho for short). Since

this writing appears to avow the uni cation of politics and religion, it

becomes important to explore what uni cation means. This was the writing

that Tanaka used to promote a national high sanctuary (kokuritsu kaidan),
but also a writing central to Nichiren Sh - sh - and Soka Gakkai

s interpreta-
tion of Nichiren. The three great secret laws (or Dharmas) described in this
text refer to the honzon (honmon no honzon), the daimoku (honmon no dai-
moku), and the kaidan (honmon no kaidan), ordination platform or high
sanctuary. The honzon and daimoku have been discussed above; it is the con-
cept of kaidan that has sparked so much debate because of its presumed
political function. Because of the nationalist in

'

uence, the kaidan was for a
long time in post-1945 Japan interpreted to be promulgating the unity of the
ruler

'

s dharma and the Buddha Dharma as a way to nationalise Buddhism
and protect it with state authority. In pre-war Japan, those who upheld the
authenticity of this text tended to do so as a way to advocate the political
objective of establishing a state-sanctioned religious sanctuary that became
known as kokuritsu kaidan (national high sanctuary), a term, in fact, that
Nichiren does not use. After World War II the authenticity of the Sandai hih -
sho was questioned by those who criticised the nationalistic attitudes of pre-
war Buddhists (cf. Tokoro 1965: 152). Tokoro showed how Nichiren rejected
the idea of a national kaidan, and how Nichiren used the term ordination
platform of honmon to mean the place where practitioners of the Lotus Sutra
enshrine and chant to Nichiren

s honzon. Tokoro maintains the position that
Nichiren talks about the ordination platform in principle (ridan), but is
opposed to in actuality (jidan).
The Sandai hih - sho was for a long time deemed apocryphal, a view that
has begun to change (Sueki 1999). The concept of the Three Great Secret
Laws has been central to the doctrine of Nichiren Sh - sh -

'

as it took Nichi-

ren s Buddhist practice

and the building of a high sanctuary as a future goal for Nichiren

' s honzon and daimoku to be what constituted Nichiren '

s disciples.
Soka Gakkai followed this position. However, to understand Soka Gakkai

'

s
use of the term kokuritsu kaidan in its early days, something seen by outsiders
as the political goal but of

'

cially discarded with the establishment of Komeito
(Nishiyama 1975), we need to explore further the meaning of the term
kokuritsu kaidan to the various groups involved. A discussion of this issue will