311
Reply to Hōki and the Others

GENERALLY speaking, youshould draw up the documentin this manner. But if the Atsuhara
farmers are released without injury,
then there is no need for Nisshū andthe others to submit the document.
The lawless actions carried out by
the priest Daishin-bō, the lay priest
Yatōji, and the others were done originally at the urging of Gyōchi,1 and they
resulted in violence and bloodshed. If,
on top of this, our people should bepressed to present a written oath [regarding their religious beliefs], theyshould under no circumstances agree
to such an oath. I say this because violence and bloodshed have already beencommitted, and neither in past times
nor present have I ever heard of a casein which, on top of such violence, one
takes an oath and thereby agrees tooverlook the other party’s oﬀense.
Moreover, if Gyōchi is guilty of theacts stated in your draft, then there is
no way he can excuse himself and hewill have no course other than to accept the appropriate punishment. How
could it be otherwise, how could it beotherwise?
When you submit your document

stating these facts, if you press your caseﬁrmly, I am certain that the authorities
will listen to you. If Gyōchi produces
witnesses to support his contentions,point out that such witnesses represent
the same point of view as those whoconspired with Gyōchi to seize thereapings from several tens of rice ﬁelds
from the farmers. If on top of that heproduces written testimonies, declarethat such testimonies are false.
In all these proceedings, there is noneed to approve the testimonies by thewitnesses. Just stick to the charges in
the present document, which are simply those of violence and bloodshed.
If anyone should go against the instructions contained herein, then he is
no disciple of Nichiren, he is no disciple of Nichiren!

820

Respectfully,
Nichiren
The twelfth day of the tenth
month in the second year of Kōan
[1279]To HōkiNisshū
Nichiben and the others

REPLY TO HŌ K I AND THE OT HE R S

Background
This letter was addressed to, among
others, Hōki, or Hōki-bō, also known
as Nikkō, and Nisshū and Nichiben,priests of Ryūsen-ji, a Tendai temple
in the Atsuhara area, who had been
converted to Nichiren Daishonin’steachings by Nikkō. They were in Kamakura attempting to gain the releaseof twenty farmers from the Atsuhara
area being detained by the authorities
on false charges, and threatened andtortured to make them recant theirfaith in the Daishonin’s teaching. This
was the culmination of what is known
as the Atsuhara Persecution.
Gyōchi, the deputy chief priest ofRyūsen-ji, had tried to expel Nisshūand Nichiben from the temple on account of their belief. Moreover, he hadcolluded with the authorities to arrest
twenty farmers who had been converted by these priests. The Daishonin
drafted a document to the authorities
in the name of Nisshū and Nichiben
detailing Gyōchi’s crimes and calling
for the release of the arrested farmers.

From the opening line, “Generallyspeaking, you should draw up thedocument in this manner,” it can beassumed that the Daishonin sent thisletter along with the draft of thedocument, written originally by Toki
Jōnin and revised by the Daishonin,
who appended the opening section
concerning Buddhist doctrines. That
document appears in this volume under the title The Ryūsen-ji Petition. The
document was ignored, and ﬁnally Hei
no Saemon-no-jō had three of the arrested farmers beheaded and the others
banished from Atsuhara. Nevertheless,none of the new believers in Atsuhara
recanted their faith.
The persecution was a deeply signiﬁcant event, demonstrating Nichiren
Daishonin's Buddhism had become
ﬁrmly rooted among common people.
These followers were no longer mere
believers but were playing an active
central role in the spread of the Daishonin's teachings.

Note
1. Daishin-bō was a priest who lived inthe Fuji area. He was in the group that rodeto arrest twenty of the believers in Atsuhara.
The farmers resisted, and in the melee
Daishin-bō was thrown from his horse anddied. Yatōji was the elder brother of Jinshirō,Yagorō, and Yarokurō, farmers and followersof the Daishonin who were beheaded dur-ing the Atsuhara Persecution. Yatōji hadlodged a false complaint with the authorities, alleging that the farmers, including his
three younger brothers, were stealing ricefrom the ﬁelds of Ryūsen-ji temple. Gyōchi
was a lay priest and a member of the ruling
Hōjō clan who acted as the deputy chief
priest of Ryūsen-ji temple.

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