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Letters of Nichiren

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Nichiren (1222-1282) was a figure of central importance in the history of Japanese Buddhism as the founder of an orthodox form of Buddhism which strictly adheres to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Letters of Nichiren is a collection of seventy-three letters to disciples and other followers. Written throughout years of persecution and exile, these letters are as much a source of inspiration today as they were to his contemporaries.

The Kamakura period (1185-1333) in which Nichiren lived was a time of great unrest, when threats of foreign invasion, natural disasters, famines, and epidemics ravaged the country. The letters gathered in this volume display Nichiren's conviction that the chaotic state of his country could be attributed to a failure to follow the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which is considered to be the foremost of Shakyamuni's teachings.

While communicating the major doctrinal themes, the vivid metaphors and clear arguments of Nichiren's correspondence also reveal the rhetorical flourish of a powerful spiritual guide. Alongside Burton Watson's lucid and accurate translations, editor Philip B. Yampolsky provides a brief introduction to each letter, notes, a glossary of terms, appendixes of Chinese and Sanskrit names, and a bibliography.

A companion volume to Selected Writings of Nichiren, published in 1990, this unique collection will appeal to Nichiren Buddhists as well as scholars and students of Buddhism, Japanese thought, religion, and history.

Nichiren (1222-1282) was a figure of central importance in the history of Japanese Buddhism as the founder of an orthodox form of Buddhism which strictly adheres to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Letters of Nichiren is a collection of seventy-three letters to disciples and other followers. Written throughout years of persecution and exile, these letters are as much a source of inspiration today as they were to his contemporaries.

The Kamakura period (1185-1333) in which Nichiren lived was a time of great unrest, when threats of foreign invasion, natural disasters, famines, and epidemics ravaged the country. The letters gathered in this volume display Nichiren's conviction that the chaotic state of his country could be attributed to a failure to follow the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which is considered to be the foremost of Shakyamuni's teachings.

While communicating the major doctrinal themes, the vivid metaphors and clear arguments of Nichiren's correspondence also reveal the rhetorical flourish of a powerful spiritual guide. Alongside Burton Watson's lucid and accurate translations, editor Philip B. Yampolsky provides a brief introduction to each letter, notes, a glossary of terms, appendixes of Chinese and Sanskrit names, and a bibliography.

A companion volume to Selected Writings of Nichiren, published in 1990, this unique collection will appeal to Nichiren Buddhists as well as scholars and students of Buddhism, Japanese thought, religion, and history.

This volume, with its superb explanations and background, will appeal to Soka Gakkai members as well as anyone interested in Nichiren. Excellent.

Back when I was first acquainting myself with Japanese Buddhism, Nichiren was one of my first jolts. Compared to the generally calm and measured tones of most Buddhist leaders like Kukai and Dogen, his rhetoric grated on my ears as caustic and harsh, vehement in a hellfire-and-brimstone manner I would usually tend to associate more with other religious traditions closer to home. I didn't like the guy. I didn't want to consider him "really" Buddhist. But like him or not, there he was, one of the towering figures of Japanese Buddhism, the founder (retrospectively speaking) of one of Japan's key popular schools. So I gritted my teeth and forced myself to learn more about him and his doctrines, and strangely the more I learned the more gradually interesting this uncompromising firebrand became. "Letters of Nichiren" is highly important in that regard and obviously an indispensable source in terms of Buddhist Studies and Japanese religious history, but beyond that it is here in these 73 letters of varying length written by Nichiren to his followers that we are liable to catch him at his most likable.

Indeed, while he is no less uncompromising as elsewhere, here in these letters Nichiren comes across as particularly warm and personally concerned with the spiritual and physical welfare of his addressees. That this is so even in one case where he considers it likely that his follower will recant single-minded faith in the Lotus Sutra and so unfortunately fall into hell is odd but nonetheless true. The modern reader will especially note Nichiren's high regard for his female followers and the arguments he puts forth in favor of their chances of attaining Buddhahood--an attitude very atypical of Buddhism generally and certainly that of Nichiren's day. Buddhologists will no doubt pick up on Nichiren's tendency to cite the same passages of the Lotus Sutra in different letters, giving invaluable insight into the shaping of his thought, while historians will glean priceless hints into the early formation of religious networks in eastern Japan and of the informal but dependable economic support structure Nichiren and his emerging movement depended upon. Finally, the opportunity to hear a major religious thinker in all the vigor and humanity of his own words makes for fascinating reading even when his single-minded approach makes some of the letters just a tad monotonous.

The translation is smooth, a good balance of readability and accuracy. One would expect nothing less of Burton Watson, but this is so of the other anonymous translators for some of the shorter letters as well. Suitably detailed and unobtrusive annotations make this thick and hefty volume as useful for the scholar as for the general reader, not to mention American believers in Nichiren's teachings. The letters are arranged roughly by region, which helpfully tends to bunch together different letters to the same addressee but rather distractingly causes the letters to jump around chronologically. But the latter is a minor annoyance in what is otherwise a significant resource and a generally first-rate book. Namu Myoho Rengekyo.

"The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin" were
published by Nichiren Shoshu International Center,
and the editor-translator is the Gosho translation committee.
Unfortunately, the major writings do not list specific names
of who was on that committee.
So, perhaps Burton Watson was among the editor/translators,
and if so,he is (perhaps) entitled to duplicate some of the gosho
in "Letters of Nichiren". If not, "Letters of Nichiren"
is simply a plagiarized copy of the major writings,
with the order of the writings changed.