Nichiren on Sado Island

After being saved from execution at Tatsunokuchi Beach, Nichiren was held at Echi, near the Teradomari harbour, where he would set sail for Sado Island.  It took more than a week before the sea was calm enough to cross, but it was still a dangerous journey.  In the picture below you can see Nichiren calming the sea by chanting daimoku.

Nichiren was nearly fifty when he was exiled to Sado Island and on the 1^st November 1271, three days after arriving on the island, Nichiren was taken to an abandoned field that was used as a graveyard and given a small dilapidated hut.  He writes:

“The chances are one in ten thousand that I will survive the year or even the month.”  (WND-1. P402)

“Among those sent to Sado, most die; few live. And after I had finally managed to reach my place of exile, I was looked upon as someone who had committed a crime worse than murder or treason.”(WND1, p519)   

“The hearts of the people are like those of birds and beasts; they recognize neither sovereign, teacher, nor parent. Even less do they distinguish between correct and incorrect in Buddhism, or good and evil in their teachers.”  (WND1, p213)

“There, true to the nature of that northern land, I found the wind particularly strong in winter, the snows deep, the clothing thin, and the food scarce.”  (WND1, p519)

“I lived in a graveyard called Tsukahara, at a place between the meadows and the mountains that was far removed from human habitation. I lived in a small hut [Sammai-dō] built with four posts. The roof boards did not shut out the sky, and the walls were crumbling. Rain came in as though there were no roof at all, and the snow piled up inside.”  (WND2, p773-774)

“[T]he walls did not keep out the wind. Day and night the only sound reaching my ears was the sighing of the wind by my pillow; each morning the sight that met my eyes was the snow that buried the roads far and near. I felt as though I had passed through the realm of hungry spirits and fallen alive into one of the cold hells.    (WND1, p519)

“There was no image of the Buddha, and no trace of matting or other floor covering. But I set up the figure of Shakyamuni, the lord of teachings, that I have carried with me from times past, and held the Lotus Sutra in my hand, and with a straw coat around me and a straw hat on my head, I managed to live there.”  (WND2, p774)

“I am sending back some of the young priests. You can ask them what this province is like and about the circumstances in which I live. It is impossible to describe these matters in writing.”  (WND1, p214)

“Please tell the young priests that they should not neglect their studies. You absolutely must not lament over my exile.”   (WND1, p214)

Nichiren always stressed to his followers that “from the very day you listen to [and take faith in] this sutra, you should be fully prepared to face the great persecutions of the three types of enemies" (WND1.p391) but wrote “although my disciples had already heard this, when both great and small persecutions confronted us, some were so astounded and terrified that they even forsook their faith. (ibid.)  

Even worse though, were that some disciples tried to persuade other followers to reject the Daishonin:  “When persecutions befell me, [Shō-bō, Noto-bō, and the lay nun of Nagoe] took advantage of these to convince many of my followers to drop out.”  (WND1, p800)

Nichiren also wrote about the journey from Kamakura to Sado Island being “more than a thousand ri  [450km / 280 miles]  over treacherous mountains and raging seas. There are sudden onslaughts of wind and rain, bandits lurk in the mountains, and pirates lie in wait on the sea. The people at every stage and every post town are as bestial as dogs or tigers” (WND1, p325)

This is the route that his closest disciples would have had to follow to deliver food, paper and religious texts to him, and then they would return back the same way with his letters of encouragement and guidance for other disciples.  This really shows the depth of commitment that Nichiren Daishonin and his early disciples had to ensure the continued flow of Nichiren Buddhism. 

In this modern age of e-mails it can be difficult enough to reflect on the good old days of writing letters, buying stamps and finding a post-box, let alone the physical and emotional hardships of delivering food and communication between the capital city and an inhospitable island via a dangerous and demanding trip over “treacherous mountains and raging seas”.