英語訳
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The people's condition—is this not an age of eternal peace and prosperity? Due to this, we now broadly knock on the doors of temple supporters and widely solicit charitable donations, precisely wishing to repay the virtue of Buddha and the patriarchs and to reciprocate the nation's benevolence. All people devote their sincerity, and from all quarters they apply their will to revive the desolate crane-trees and restore the declining monastery groves. Each person enters this Honmon school to share joy in eternal life, and every individual reaches that Ikegami to enjoy together the days of coolness and purity.
The founder, Saint Nichiren's family name was Fujiwara. His father was Nukinashi-no-jiro Shigetada (originally of the Mikuni clan; Shigetada was the second son of Nukinago-ro Shikesane, governor of Enshu Province). His mother was of the Kiyohara clan (some say she was from the Hatakeyama clan family, or the daughter of Yamazaki Sakon Junior Fifth Rank Kaneyoshi). He was born on the 16th day of the 2nd month of Jōō 1 (1222) in Kominato, Nagasa District, Bōshū Province (his mother always worshipped the rising sun; one night she dreamed that the sun disc rode on a lotus and lodged in her womb, after which she conceived; hence he was named Zennichimaro). (A temple was established at the site of the saint's birth—this is the so-called Tanjō-ji of Kominato.)
At twelve years old, he entered Seichō-ji Temple and studied Shingon practices under Dōzen, taking the name Yakuōmaro (according to the Shūyō-shō, on the 12th day of the 5th month of Tenpuku 1 [1233], he first entered the temple; Seichō-ji is the historic site where the saint first awakened his religious spirit and is a sacred place of Kokūzō Bodhisattva).
In Katei 3 (1237), at age sixteen, he received tonsure, donned religious robes, received ordination, took the name Renchō, and was called Zeshō (by Dōzen's command; this was a local name; the Shūyō-shō states he became a monk on the 8th day of the 10th month). Later he changed his name to Nichiren (this was in response to the miraculous signs at his birth and the spiritual dream).
At one time, he practiced the method of kokūzō-gumonji and experienced spiritual response. Through this he gained the ability to understand a thousand things from hearing one, extensively studied all Buddhist schools, and gained great mastery of the scriptures. Finally reaching the golden words "among all sutras, this is the king, the most excellent," he awakened the aspiration for the great way of benefiting sentient beings. In Kenchō 5 (1253), at age thirty-two, in the 4th month, he entered seven days of samadhi in his room at Kiyosumi.
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On the 28th day of the same month, facing the rising sun with palms joined, he first chanted the seven characters of the Lotus Sutra title (this was the beginning of his propagation of the true teaching). Therefore Dōzen became angry and expelled him from Kiyosumi. In the 5th month of the same year (some say it was the 4th month), he moved to Matsubagayatsu in Sagami Province.
In the 7th year, Kōgen (1255), at age thirty-four, he wrote his Commentary on the Lotus Sutra (in Shōka 4 [1258], he entered Jissō-ji at Iwamoto in Suruga Province to study the complete Buddhist canon and wrote the General Meaning of the Buddha's Lifetime Teachings). Also in Bun'ō 1 (1260), at age thirty-nine, he compiled the "Treatise on Establishing Right and Bringing Peace to the Nation" (according to the postscript to the Nakayama Ankokuron, it began in Shōka and was completed in Bun'ō).
On the 16th day of the 7th month, through Yadoya Saemon Mitsunori, he presented this to former Sagami Governor Taira no Tokiyori. However, because the writing criticized various Buddhist schools and contained seemingly arrogant passages, it was not accepted; instead, the saint was exiled to Itō in Izu Province. This was on the 12th day of the 5th month of Kōchō 1 (1261). (Prior to this, during the Bun'ō years, he visited Sōshū Province, where the Toki family built a hall and housed the saint—this was the saint's first place of turning the dharma wheel and is now Nakayama Myōhokke-ji Temple.)
In the 2nd year (1262), at age forty, Tokiyori felt remorseful and moved by something, so in the following year on the 22nd day of the 5th month of 1263, he issued a decree pardoning the saint, who then returned to Kamakura. (In Bun'ei 1 [1264], at age forty-three, in the 8th month the saint went down to Bōshū; his mother, the nun Myōren, died on the 3rd day of the 10th month, but through the saint's prayers she revived; on the 11th day of the 11th month, he moved to Komatsubara in the same province, but Tōjō Saemon Taira no Kagenobu, who hated the saint's teaching, surrounded Komatsubara; the saint escaped into a cave at Ichigasaka; also in the 6th year [1269], he buried a hand-copied Lotus Sutra in the mountainside of Mount Fuji—this is now called "Kyō-no-mine" [Sutra Peak].)
In Bun'ei 8 (1271) (this summer there was a great drought; the saint went to Ryōzengasaki in Kamakura and chanted the daimoku to pray for rain, writing sutra passages on thin boards and casting them into the sea, and indeed there was a response), the government deliberated, saying "Nichiren makes Buddhism into...