Contribution

Religious Reformations in Japan and Europe:
An Encounter of Nichiren and Martin Luther
Ulrich Dehn

T

HE 16th century in Europe was a time of dramatic change in politics, religion and general intellectual history; just as it was the casein Japan in the 13th century. As a result of the interplay of numerous
personalities and historical factors, the 16th century in Central Europe,and especially in the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”,
experienced a transformation, which is connected, among others, with
the names of Emperor Charles V. and Martin Luther; in 13th-century
Japan with the names of Nichiren, HØnen, Shinran and (to a smaller
extent) DØgen. However, the respective transformations are not to be
seen as the result of historical detailed study that would have concluded
with an epoch-making paradigm shift, but, to be precise, we must beaware of the fact that we are working here with posterior interpretationsof long-term processes, with “master narratives”1 and historical grandnarratives, that is to say, with constructions that allow us to understandhistory (and the present) and that facilitate comprehensive interpretations. With that we drop the claim to allow for or rather to reach thegreatest possible representation of “historical reality”, but it is only inthis way that the 13th Japanese century and the 16th European century
can be compared at all.

Historical, Political and Social Developments in Europe andJapan
The most important features of a transformation in Central Europe atthat time were:- Impoverishment of the population due to a dropping gold price, general inflation and decreasing spending power. Migration to the cities
and an increase in population supported urbanization and the povertyof the rural population compared to the increasingly wealthy urban
citizenry.
- From the middle of the 15th century it was possible to print books
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using flexible typesetting; thus facilitating the mass production of
documents.
- Humanism with its motto “ad fontes” (back to the sources) as a trend
within intellectual history led to a renewed general appreciation ofancient authors and texts, which were consulted in order to criticize
current conditions. This new appreciation was transferred to the Bible
and its re-evaluation vis-à-vis church tradition. From that the Reformers developed the principle sola scriptura to which were added threefurther principles (sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus).
- Regarding foreign policy, the situation in Europe was characterized
by the antagonism of the Hapsburg Empire (Emperor Charles V.) towards France (King Francis I.). Then there was the fear of the advancing Ottomans who were threatening Vienna in 1529. This situation
also found its expression in Luther’s works where he vehemently
cursed the Turks. The fact that the Emperor, owing to duties related toforeign policy, stayed mostly out of the country, helped the expansionof the Reformation.
In Japan the period from the end of the 12th century until the beginningof the 14th century (1192–1333) was influenced by some marked changes. This epoch called Kamakura period received its name due to the factthat the de facto ruling military government (bakufu) headed by the ShØgun resided in Kamakura, while the disempowered Imperial Court wasin Kyoto. It replaced the almost 400-year-long era of the Heian period.
During that time the Emperor was officially in power with his royal seatin Heian-Kyo (today’s Kyoto), but then, bit by bit, the power moved to
the Fujiwara family.2 Connected to this process was the transference ofpower from the court nobility in Kyoto and the “cloistered emperors”,
that is, the resigned monarchs that had the say in the Heian period, tothe military nobles, the Bushi/Samurai. Through close personal interconnections between high-ranking members of the religious orders andthe court nobility, the landed property and power of Buddhist institutions had increased constantly; the monasteries had built armies ofmonks that were deployed in fights against rival religious orders but also
against the Imperial Court and other rulers, i.e. when it was necessary to
defend oneself against unpopular personnel decisions—the right toassign high positions in Buddhist orders was exercised by state-run
institutions. At the same time, the monasteries enjoyed criminal immunity so that often dubious characters looked for shelter there. Observers
and critics saw this as an indication that in the year 1052 the last days of
the world—as announced in Buddhist texts—had actually set in, that is
to say, the time of a progressive disintegration of Buddhist doctrine andreligious reformations in japan and europe

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practice. This situation led several monks to turn their backs on themonasteries and to start looking for new forms of Buddhism, living as
mountain-dwelling or wandering ascetics. They became the nuclei ofwhat was later called Kamakura Buddhism.3 In addition, there was theinfluence of the once again strength-gaining military class: They wanted
a reduction of the quite pronounced ritual system, simplicity and a limitation to the essentials. “With that the way was positively paved for a
new religious movement that, in rebellion against the confusing andincreasingly shallow superabundance of religious forms and the accompanying superior strength of the clergy, looked for a more simple
approach that could be practised by every lay person and that would
offer inner satisfaction at the same time.”4 Something similar is
acknowledged by Christoph Kleine who confirms that Buddhism in thelate 12th century was looking for closeness to the people and wanted toemancipate itself from the example set by the Chinese.5 The extent alone
with which Kleine treats the Kamakura period in his voluminous work,
about one half of the book, hints at the fact that here a paradigm shift
in Buddhist history of religion is ascribed, in the same way Wilhelm
Gundert saw here an important turning point which was affected by thechange of political circumstances.
While since the end of the 12th century the political power was heldby the bakufu (“tent government” as a term depicting the predominant
regime of the military class that actually was in power) and the general
at its top, the militarily successful Minamoto no Yoritomo had the Emperor award him the hereditary title Sei-i TaishØgun, in short ShØgun, in
1192, thereby effectively obtaining the power in the Japanese Empire
which was to stay with the shoguns until the beginning of the Meiji
period (1868). With that the political power of the military as well as its
influence on the religious sphere were confirmed and secured. This
became manifest, for example, when in the seventies and eighties of
the 13th century the Mongols threatened Japan, to which the Imperial
Court in Kyoto and the bakufu government reacted quite differently: theEmperor wanted to submit peacefully, whereas the military government
reacted by rejecting the Mongolian delegation and by armament.

Religious Radical Change
The above-mentioned changes in the respective epochs differed considerably, but they were accompanied by structurally similar religious
processes that can be characterized by the following aspects:- a beginning dissolution of the paradigm of celibate monastic life;

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religious reformations in japan and europe- a stronger orientation towards the sources;- a denouncement of the deplorable state of affairs in the traditional
Buddhist schools;- a greater closeness to the people; a watering down of the separation
between the clergy and the laity.
Two central figures representing these changes were Nichiren, originallya monk of the Tendai School, in Japan and the Christian theologian andmonk Martin Luther in Central Europe. In the following these two will
be portrayed biographically and their basic thoughts will be explained
and compared. The comparison will have to bear in mind that not only
the historical situations, in which the two characters acted, were completely different; likewise that there may be structural similarities in thereligious biographies and also in terms of content, but that there may
also exist opposing accents that will resist a comparison.

Nichiren
According to common estimation, Nichiren was born on 16 February
1222 on the Boso peninsula (Awa province) in the village of Kominato
at the Pacific coast. As this estimation is made according to a calendar of
the lunar year, it can be assumed that it was on 30 March 1222 of thesolar year (Julian calendar). His origin and birth—like those of otherreligious founders—are shrouded in legends. According to one hagiography6, the marriage of his parents, the announcement of his birth in oneof his mother’s dreams and his birth being a manifestation of an eternal
Buddha are pre-conditioned events. However, some aspects of his childhood and youth are astonishing, should he actually have been the sonof a humble fisherman’s family: the traditional education he received
until the age of twelve; the studies in different temples also outside hishome village; pupils and followers also from the ranks of knights andprinces and the circles of government officials as well as the support of
influential families.7
In some of his works Nichiren himself points out that he was born
into a ‘chandåla’ family (in Letter from Sado, 1272, and in Banishment
to Sado, 1271), a term from India hinting at a low caste or even the classoutside of the caste system (“untouchables”), that is, a social group at
the fringes of society.8 By his adoptive parents, Nukina Shigetada andUmegiku, Nichiren was given the name YakuØmaru accompanied by thearistocratic name Zennichimaro; and at the age of twelve he was entrusted to the SeichØ-ji temple, which belonged to a branch of the Tendai
School, in order to receive a monastic education. At the age of fifteen hereligious reformations in japan and europe143

was ordained and received the name ZeshØ-bØ RenchØ.9 That Nichiren
was educated in an institution of the Tendai School was not unusual atthat time; moreover, he became familiarized with different practices
rather more typical of other schools, i.e. that of the mantric prayer to the
Buddha Amida.10
Even in his early years, Nichiren seems to have been driven by anintensive desire to seek the truth, a desire which finally, many years
later, was fulfilled by the Lotus Sutra.11 Here perhaps a first comparison
with Martin Luther is possible who, too, during his early studying years
as a monk staying at the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt (1505–1508),
was driven by the tormenting question “How do I get hold of a mercifulGod?” and for whom this question—in opposition to the theologicaltrend of his time—became the central theological struggle for truth. In a
letter Nichiren refers to the decision to turn to Buddhist monastic life hemade in his youth. He explains this decision with his astonishment at thefact that great wise men and saints—despite their being in a state of salvation—do not have a relaxed and peaceful expression at death, but one
that is characterized by agony. As a result of the doubts he developed
regarding this observation, he decided to leave his home in Awa behindand to choose life as a monk.12 This decision for a life dedicated to
Buddhism, which induces him first to turn to Amida Buddhism, can becompared with Luther’s decision who—presumably owing to experiencing a violent thunderstorm—decided to become a monk in 1505.
For further studies Nichiren goes to Kamakura, he then returns to the
Kiyosumi-dera, and during that time he distances himself from theteachings of Pure Land Buddhism (JØdo) because these rejected theLotus Sutra as being too difficult for the people. In 1243, at the age of21, he travels to Kyoto, to the Hiezan, the mountain with the old training
centre of the Tendai School northeast of Kyoto, where he spends thenext ten years studying intensively, including numerous teachings andpractices of different schools of Japanese Buddhism and their methods,
such as asceticism, practising nothing but meditation, and several practices of esoteric Buddhism. Nichiren uses the closeness to other important Buddhist places to get to know and study these, too (Kegon in Nara,
Shingon at the Koya-san and others). During his time on the Hiezan hegot the impression that in the Tendai School, too, the unique esteem of
the Lotus Sutra had been reduced due to diverse syncretistic influences;and he wanted to return to the original teachings of T’ien-t’ai Ta-Shihand to concentrate, even more radically than T’ien T’ai, exclusively on
the Lotus Sutra.13

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The Key Event for the Nichiren Movement
In 1253 Nichiren returned to his home temple SeichØ-ji where—after
having spent seven days secluded in a nearby forest—at midday of 28
April he called together the priests and villagers. Before doing so, he
had recited the Sino-Japanese opening line of the Lotus Sutra (namumyØhØ renge kyØ) while looking at the sun rising over the Pacific. Thenhe announced his teachings, namely that all teachings of Buddhism were
contained in the Lotus Sutra and that the Lotus Sutra had to be regarded
as the one and foremost true book of Buddhist teachings. Moreover, thatthe opening line (namu) myØhØ renge kyØ was a symbolic summary ofthe doctrine and the recitation of this line a completely valid Buddhist
practice. Nichiren distanced himself explicitly from the Pure Land
School and its nembutsu practice, that is, the prayer to the Buddha
Amida with the mantra namu amida butsu. Rather, nembutsu would
be the path to the hell of never-ending suffering and not a way towards
salvation.14 On this occasion he gave himself the name Nichiren
日蓮 which consists of the characters for sun and lotus. Nichiren did notleave anybody out in his preaching—“There was none who was notoffended by his bold proclamation and fierce attack.”15
The regional prince TØjØ Kagenobu, a follower and sponsor of Pure
Land Buddhism, was outraged and tried to get hold of Nichiren. Fromthen on, Nichiren was on the run; he was helped by his former abbotDØzen.16 This event is seen as the starting point of the religious revolution set off by Nichiren; and it can be structurally compared to the eventof Luther’s posting his 95 theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church(Palatial Church) in Wittenberg. Concerning Luther, we are similarly
confronted with a two-stage process: his fundamental option for a life
dedicated to theology and the monastic life (1505), and his developing
reformatory insight since 1517.
Parallels can be seen between Nichiren’s uncompromising choice of
the Lotus Sutra and his interpretation of its opening line, on the one
hand, and Luther’s sola scriptura and solus Christus, on the other hand.
Before I finally turn to a more intensive study of Luther, I would liketo discuss Nichiren’s philosophy regarding the important work of Mahayana Buddhism and his understanding of the Daimoku, its opening line.
Important for Nichiren is the theme of faith: “The Lotus Sutra, wherein the Buddha honestly discarded expedient means, says that one can‘gain entrance through faith alone’. And the Nirvana Sutra, which the
Buddha preached in the grove of sal trees on the last day of his life,
states, ‘Although there are innumerable practices that lead to enlighten-religious reformations in japan and europe

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ment, if one teaches faith, then that includes all those practices.’ Thisfaith is the basic requirement for entering the way of the Buddha. In thefifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, the first ten stages, dealing withfaith, are basic, and the first of these ten stages is that of arousing purefaith.”17 Deep and impassioned is Nichiren’s faith in the one Buddha of
the Lotus Sutra, which makes it for him all the less understandable how
people can turn to the other, the Buddha Amida: “Now the Buddha islike the masses of clouds, his teachings are like the heavy rain, and thewithered plants and trees are like all living beings. When they are watered by the rain of the Buddhist teachings and observe the five precepts,
the ten good precepts, and the meditational practices, all of which bring
merit, they will put forth blossoms and bear fruit.”18 In Nichiren’s religious philosophy there join the faith in the Buddha of the Lotus Sutra, inthe sense of overwhelmingly skilful means (upaya), in the effect of the
Buddhist teachings (like “heavy rain on fertile soil”), and in the effect of
the recitation (“chanting”) of the Daimoku, in which the entire teachingsof Buddha are contained symbolically. With the belief in the power ofthe mantra, however, he was at least methodically close to the nembutsu
practice of Amida Buddhism.
He rejected all forms of Buddhism not strictly aimed at the(historical) Buddha of the Lotus Sutra as being syncretistic and held thefaithfulness to the one and only true Buddha to be the one criterion for
the well-being of the country. In his first work on the subject of his newmessage, the RisshØankokuron (On Establishing The Correct Teachingfor the Peace of the Land)19, which he presented to Prince HØjØ Tokiyori
on 16 July 1260, written in the form of a fictional dialogue between a“guest” and his “host”, he develops his view of the state of affairs andthe increasing disintegration of Buddhism and the country which he sees
to be causally related to the religious, social and political situation. Thisis made quite clear even at the beginning of his text: “In recent years
there have been unusual disturbances in the heavens, strange
occurrences on earth, famine and pestilence, all affecting every corner ofthe empire and spreading throughout the land. Oxen and horses lie deadin the streets, and the bones of the stricken crowd the highways. Over
half the population has already been carried off by death, and there ishardly a single person who does not grieve.”20 Nichiren recognizes thesigns of the last days of the Dharma (mappØ); but he does not only identify signs that hint at a more complicated or even impossible access tothe teachings of Buddhism, he actually sees the whole country affectedby this. In the style of establishing proof with the help of sutra texts, heverifies his observations with a quotation from the Great Collection

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Sutra: “The Great Collection Sutra says: ‘When the teachings of the
Buddha truly become obscured and lost, then people will all let theirbeards, hair, and fingernails grown long, and the laws of the world will
be forgotten and ignored. At that time, loud noises will sound in the air,and the earth will shake; everything in the world will begin to move as
though it were a waterwheel. City walls will split and tumble, and allhouses and dwellings will collapse’.”21 Here a close link between thedisintegration of the Buddhist teachings and events happening in natureand society is formulated.
In the RisshØ-ankokuron Nichiren also predicted a foreign invasion asa consequence of the religious confusion of the Japanese; for him thisprediction seemed to become true when in 1268 a Mongolian delegation
came to Japan for the first time, requesting the Japanese people tosubmit.22 This close link between the propagation of the Dharma andnatural and political processes is something specific for the patriotic
prophet Nichiren, who was concerned with the well-being of his country. Martin Luther’s interests were first of all of a theological nature, but
he and Nichiren share a great rhetoric and personal disposition.

Martin LutherMartin Luther (1483–1546) is a central part, but not the one and only
focal point of a reformatory process which, according to Thomas
Kaufmann, has to be assessed by criteria of church sociology rather thantheologically.23 He was born 1483 in Eisleben; his family came from a“thriving urban-bourgeois milieu”.24 His father Hans Luder was a mine
entrepreneur, and a higher education and an influential professional
position were probably open to Martin Luther.25 The expectations thefather had for his son, however, were connected with law studies andwere later disrupted by the legendary event that happened to Luther in
1505: a thunderstorm with lightning on an open field in which course
Luther vowed to become a monk, should he survive this thunderstorm,
thereby renouncing to law studies. This fundamental turn in his life wasfollowed by joining the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and his straight
theological development in agreement with the Augustinian order.
Luther was granted a career as professor of theology which, however,collided with his theological investigation of how man can become righteous in the sight of God and thus can find “a merciful God”, but alsowith his criticism of the custom of granting indulgences: Due to reasonsconcerning church policy, after his going public with his 95 theses relating to indulgence traffic on 31 October 1517, he was released from thereligious reformations in japan and europe

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vow to obedience by the head of the Augustinian order, Johann vonStaupitz, in October 1518. In fact, Johann von Staupitz had been thedriving force behind Luther’s studying in Wittenberg and his doctoratein theology in 1512 as well as Luther’s becoming Staupitz’s successor as
chair of the department “Lectura in Biblia” (Exegesis of the Bible).26 In
1514 Luther had been appointed provincial curate of the order, thus
attaining an important leading position besides his teaching duties. It is
assumed that the reformatory insight that man will be “righteous” insight of God by faith alone, that is to say, that man is granted the graceof God, grew out of an intensive reflection on Romans 1:17; however,
the exact date of this insight remains contested. In the following years
the scope of Luther’s theology grows: his criticism of the use of Aristotelian thought in scholastic theology, his use of the anti-Pelagian writings of Augustine, his criticism of the sacraments and their reduction tobaptism and the Eucharist, and the concentration of his theology on thetwo dialectically connected sentences “A Christian is a free man above
all things and not subjugated to anyone” and “A Christian is a loyal
servant of all things and subjugated to everyone” in his work “A Treatiseon Christian Liberty” of 1520. Luther did not see his theologicaland ecclesiastical fight as some quarrel amongst many, but recognized
himself to be in an apocalyptic fight of the Gospel against Satan andthe pope as his Antichrist.27 With this self-assumed role he was not far
from Nichiren for whom his religious and political activities were set
into a scenario of the last days of the Dharma, too.

Luther’s Most Important Concerns
Next to the central insight that man cannot be righteous in the sight ofGod because of his or her merits, but only by the grace of God and faithin God alone, Luther basically pursued the following issues:(1) Parallel to concerns of Humanism, Luther dared to criticize thecurrent form of the holy church only in the name of an authority thatwas older than church customs. This criterion could only be met by
the Bible itself, to which Luther would return as the cornerstone ofall of his later developments. In the Bible he found the older
tradition and therefore the unadulterated and more appropriate
practice of Christian life. He held the view that the aspects ofcurrent practice that were not compatible with the witness of the
Bible could be legitimately criticized.
(2) The principle of the Bible being self-interpreting. Even if Luther,

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according to his own understanding, could make use of the Bible asa document of divine revelation in his criticism of the current exegetic practice and the church, his interpretation of the scripture waschallenged by important authorities of his time. The doctrine of thechurch, represented by councils and the papacy, was maintained to
be infallible. He countered this claim by saying that councils andpopes could be mistaken, too. The church’s claim to be the institution that held the monopoly on interpreting the Bible was disputedby Luther theologically by saying that the nature of the Holy Scripture was a divinely inspired document of revelation. His central
thesis maintains that the Holy Scripture is interpreting itself. To
understand the scripture one doesn’t need the doctrine of the church
but scripture-immanent hermeneutics. This principle leads to thenext.
(3) The principle ‘Every Christian is an interpreter’. If the Holy Scripture interprets itself, then it follows that every Christian who reads
the Bible attentively and appeals to the Holy Spirit for help inunderstanding the Bible is able to understand the content of the biblical texts independently. Every believer in Christ is an interpreter ofthe scripture because God’s word addresses all people, regardless ofany man-made hierarchy. From this principle there also follows theprinciple of the universal priesthood of believers.
(4) The principle of the centre of the scripture. Luther’s hermeneutics
concerning the scripture has a philological aspect as Luther stresses
the importance of the fact that each biblical book has first of all tobe understood in its context. At the same time Luther was also convinced that the Bible had its own “central theme” so that not allof the texts were equally significant. As a uniting principle he put
forward that the Old and the New Testament were about thatwhat could be found of Christ behind every biblical text (German:
Das, was Christum treibet). From this centre, in terms of content,also such passages had to be understood the meaning of which was
hard to understand. A further principle said that in such a case the“dark” (that is: incomprehensible) passages had to be elucidatedwith the help of the “light” (comprehensible) ones.
(5) The consequences relating to the use of media. These hermeneuticalprinciples also had an impact on the use of media concerning theReformation set in motion by Luther. Therefore, and in accordancewith the above-mentioned principles, it was important and consistent that Luther translated the Bible into German in order to make it
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direct a way as possible (by reading or by reading it out loud to others). The Reformation gave a boost to the production and dissemination of new forms of literature, i.e. pamphlets, sermons, and tracts.
Education became the trademark of the churches of the Reformation
period; worship services ceased to be held in Latin but weredelivered in German or other local languages in other regions.
(6) The mental consequences. It is easy to comprehend that Luther’s
hermeneutical principles also had far-reaching social consequences.
There is a trend that the institution of the church as a place of salvation and teaching authority is weakened; the relationship ofthe believer with the Holy Scripture and the independence ofunderstanding lead to a considerable individualization. Therefore
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf is right to point out the following: “At
the beginning of all modern thrusts at individualization there existsthat religious subjectivity culture that is rooted in Martin Luther’sreformatory protest.”28
Scientific research rightly points out that Luther himself—similar to
many “converts”—interpreted his own intellectual biography very muchwith regard to its contrasts. He also tended to especially describe hisbreak with the Roman-Catholic church (“church of the Pope”) as being
purely the result of his biblical insights, although in many cases heactually did react to church related events. Instead of interpreting the—rather gradual—unfolding of his thinking as being caused by hisreflection on historical developments as well as on developments
concerning church policy, this process is narrowed to the short period ofa “breakthrough” and portrayed as a contrasting “Before” and “After”
by Luther.29

Trying to Engage Nichiren and Luther in a Mutual
Conversation
To start with the aspects that Nichiren and Luther do not share: Luther’slife was, for the most part, the quiet life first of a monk and later of aprofessor of theology. Due to (sometimes even bodily) hostility towards
him, Luther only had a small range of action; but from 1514 until theend of his life in 1546 he was permanently engaged as a scholar. Unlike
Luther, Nichiren was persecuted by the authorities, spent some phasesof his life in exile on the island of Sado and was condemned to death
several times. The direct karmic link Nichiren identified between thewrong belief of the ruling powers and the people, the natural disasters

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and the political fate of Japan was alien to Luther. His interventions inpolitical matters—the Peasants’ Wars, the Ottomans near Vienna—had adifferent background.
Nor did Nichiren deal with a religious community as closely connected with the state as late medieval Roman Catholicism, but he wasconfronted with the support which Amida Buddhism received by somedynasties of princes and which was growing stronger in the course of
the 13th century. Where can some common ground between the two befound? In an outstanding way, both concerned themselves with a central
text, the Lotus Sutra and the predominant position of the Buddha
Shakyamuni, on the one hand; and the Holy Scripture before all church
tradition, interpreted according to the principle of that what could befound of Christ behind every biblical text, on the other hand: the concentration on the One and only legitimate Buddha who according toNichiren was not revered in Amida Buddhism; and Luther’s criticism ofdiverse aberrations of the church tradition. Both of them underwent twostages: first their entering the religious life as monk, and later—within
this monastic existence that enabled their respective thorough analysisof the religious community—their turn to concentrate on that what was
being identified as the essential, hand in hand with a renewed level ofreformatory thought. For Nichiren this has to be identified with his firstentering the stage preaching at SeichØ-ji in 1253; and for Luther in the
progressive change of his views in the years between 1517 and 1520.30
They are both influenced by apocalyptic ways of thinking. They are bothself-confident, linguistically gifted and full of polemical energy.
The step from celibacy into marriage and the first “parsonage” of thechurch Nichiren did not take. Until his death he lived conforming to therules of the Tendai monks. The one who broke with monastic celibate
life was his older contemporary Shinran, who left the temple, married
and adopted a status between laity and monasticism. Often, and also forother reasons, rather Shinran than Nichiren is compared with Luther because he was supposedly concerned with the theme of grace (of the
Buddha Amida) out of pure faith.31 Also for Nichiren the belief in thetrue Buddha (not in the Buddha Amida of Pure Land Buddhism) is acentral theme with karmic results for the believer; similarly, for Shinran
belief was an effective behaviour influencing the believer’s karma thatfound its expression in the mantra-worship of the Buddha Amida, which
would be repaid by the “grace” of Amida. Shinran also used the termsin; however, there are doubts if the merciful Buddha Amida here reallyis thought as the representation of an external, transcendental power, butrather that it points to an externalized inner energy of the human being.

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In this case, Shinran would not be very far from original Buddhist
thought and rather remote from Luther and, in that sense, Nichiren who
referred to the historical Buddha could more easily be a dialogue partnerof Luther.
However, it has definitely to be taken into consideration that a comparison—like the one which was drawn here—does not take into
account the numerous hermeneutical obstacles of alleged historicalcompatibilities and that it only discusses a few selected characteristics.
Whole worlds of different cultural, social and political contexts have notbeen taken into consideration here. And quite deliberately a narrative ofa possible dialogue has been employed which can make possible acomprehending look into the past, and facilitate an intercultural andinterreligious exchange in the present and future.
(translated from the German original by Andrea Ehlers)
Notes
1
Cf. Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Verwandlung der Welt—Eine Geschichte des 19.
Jahrhunderts, München 2011, Introduction. Osterhammel, against postmodernist scepticism, deliberately employs the method of the “master narrative” in order to facilitate aconclusive interpretation of historiography.
2
Cf. George Sansom, A History of Japan to 1334, Rutland/Tokyo: Tuttle 1974
(1963), 139–177.
3
Cf. Oliver Freiberger/Christoph Kleine, Buddhismus. Handbuch und kritische
Einführung, Göttingen 2011, 151.
4
Cf. Wilhelm Gundert, Japanische Religionsgeschichte, Stuttgart 1943 (Tokyo 1935),
82.
5
Cf. Christoph Kleine, Der Buddhismus in Japan, Tübingen 2011, 232 [translated by
the author of this text].
6
Mentioned in Yukio Matsudo, Nichiren, der Ausübende des Lotos-SËtra, Norderstedt: Books on Demand 2004, 48: A biographical document of Nichiren himself is
supposed to have passed on to his most important pupil NikkØ.
7
Cf. Matsudo 2004, 48f.
8
So in his “Letter from Sado”: “... How much more true this is of Nichiren, who inthis life was born poor and lowly to a chandåla family” (The Writings of Nichiren
Daishonin, Editor-Translator: The Gosho Translation Committee, Soka Gakkai, Tokyo
1999, 303), and in the text “Banishment to Sado”: “Nichiren is the son of a chandåla
family who lived near the sea in TØjØ in Awa Province, in the remote countryside of theeastern part of Japan” (ibid. 202).
9
Cf. The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism, Soka Gakkai, Tokyo 2002, 439.
10
Cf. Margareta von Borsig, Leben aus der Lotosblüte. Nichiren ShØnin: Zeuge Buddhas, Kämpfer für das Lotos-Gesetz, Prophet der Gegenwart, Freiburg i.Br. 1976, 42.
11
Cf. von Borsig 1976, 42f.
12
Cf. Matsudo 2004, 65f. Matsudo refers to Nichiren’s reply to the lay nun MyØhØ
(The Writings,1105f.), in which, however, the mentioned passage is not included. The

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similar content can be found in “The Importance of the Moment of Death (The Writingsof Nichiren Daishonin Volume II, Tokyo: Soka Gakkai 2006, 759f.), which says, “Looking back, I have been studying the Buddha’s teachings since I was a boy. And I foundmyself thinking, ‘The life of a human being is fleeting. The exhaled breath never waits
for the inhaled one. Even dew before the wind is hardly a sufficient metaphor. It is theway of the world that whether one is wise or foolish, old or young, one never knows
what will happen to one from one moment to the next. Therefore I should first of alllearn about death, and then about other things.’” However, it also does not clearly saythat this is the reason that he became a priest.
13
Cf. The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism 2002, 439f.
14
Cf. Matsudo 2004, 90.
15
Masaharu Anesaki, Nichiren the Buddhist Prophet, Cambridge: Harvard University
Press 1949, 34.
16
Cf. von Borsig 1976, 64f.; Matsudo 2004, 89–92; Anesaki 1949, 33–35.
17
The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra, in: The Writings, 141–154, 141.
18
Ibid. 148.
19
On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, in: The Writings,
6–32.
20
The Writings, 6.
21
The Writings, 8.
22
Cf. The Postscript to “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of theLand,” The Writings, 31; Matsudo 2004, 96f.
23
Kaufmann: “By Reformation I understand—carried out through a conscious disassociation from the Roman Church and a break with the current legal bases of its canonical law—the processes of reorganizing the nature of the church in urban and territorial
contexts, and the partly private, but mostly public acts of communication, especially theso-called pamphlet journalism, that initiated these processes in part or accompanied
them in part, and the political, juridical and military quarrels that took place on different
levels and stages of the cities, territories and regions, of the empire, and Europe and thatwere inseparably connected to these processes. Therefore the Reformation first of alldoes not indicate a certain theological insight of Luther in the course of his theologicaldevelopment which has to be interpreted in terms of a process ...” [translated by theauthor of this text] (Thomas Kaufmann, Geschichte der Reformation, Frankfurt a.M./
Leipzig 2009, 22).
24
Kaufmann 2009, 128.
25
“Luther” is another variation of the name “Luder”.
26
Cf. Otto Hermann Pesch, Hinführung zu Luther, Mainz: Grünewald 1982;
Kaufmann 2009, 130f.
27
Cf. Volker Leppin, Martin Luther, Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft 2006; Dietrich Korsch/Volker Leppin (eds.), Martin Luther—Biographie und Theologie, Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck 2010; Volker Leppin, Martin Luther, in: Markus Vinzent (ed.), Metzler
Lexikon Christlicher Denker, Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler 2000, 446–451.
28
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Der Protestantismus, in: H. Joas/K. Wiegandt (eds.), Säkularisierung und die Weltreligionen, Frankfurt a.M. 2007, 78–124, 99 [translated by theauthor of this text]. Regarding the six features discussed in the above paragraph, I follow
Henning Wrogemann, Eine islamische “Reformation”? –Islamische Debatten um Religion und Zivilgesellschaft und die Frage der Schrifthermeneutik, in: Michael Biehl/
Ulrich Dehn, Reformationen: Momentaufnahmen aus einer globalen Bewegung,religious reformations in japan and europe

153

Hamburg 2015, 157–172, here 159–161.
29
Cf. Kaufmann 2009, 131f.; Leppin 2000, 447.
30
Here I deliberately do not refer to the event of the so-called posting of his 95 theseson the door of the Palatial Church of Wittenberg on 31 October 1517, protesting against
the sale of indulgences, the historicity of which is contested and which has more
precisely to be seen as a symbol rather than a true focal point in terms of content
of Luther’s reformatory thought.
31
Tatsuo Oguro, Der Rettungsgedanke bei Shinran und Luther—Eine religionsvergleichende Untersuchung, Hildesheim: Olms 1985; Martin Kraatz (ed.), Luther undShinran—Eckhart und Zen, Köln: Brill 1989; Jan van Bragt, Buddhismus, JØdoShinshË, Christentum: Schlägt JØdo ShinshË eine Brücke zwischen Buddhismus und
Christentum? in: Elisabeth Gössmann/Günter Zobel (eds.), Das Gold im Wachs (FSThomas Immoos), München: Iudicium 1988.
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Weltreligionen 2009
Christoph Kleine, Der Buddhismus in Japan, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2011
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Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2010
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Demand 2004
Oguro Tatsuo, Der Rettungsgedanke bei Shinran und Luther—Eine religionsvergleichende Untersuchung, Hildesheim: Olms 1985
Otto Hermann Pesch, Hinführung zu Luther, Mainz: Grünewald 1982
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The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism, ed. by The English Buddhist Dictionary
Committee, Tokyo: Soka Gakkai 2002
Henning Wrogemann, Eine islamische “Reformation”? –Islamische Debatten um Religion und Zivilgesellschaft und die Frage der Schrifthermeneutik, in: Michael Biehl/
Ulrich Dehn, Reformationen: Momentaufnahmen aus einer globalen Bewegung,
Hamburg: Missionshilfe Verlag 2015, 157–172.

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Author Biography
Ulrich Dehn is a German theologian and religious scholar. Since 2006 he has worked asa professor at the Institute of “Mission, Ecumenical and Religious Studies [Institut fürMissions-, Ökumene- und Religionswissenschaften]” at the Department of Protestant
Theology of the University of Hamburg. Dehn addresses specifically issues of global
Christianity, the ecumenical movement, Buddhism, new religious movements, in particular Japan, the interreligious dialogue and the theory and theology of religions. Dehn isthe chair of board of Mission Academy, chairman of the Theological Commission of the
Churches and Missions in Germany. His publications include, Japanische Angelegenheiten. Verlag Otto Lembeck (2009), Weltweites Christentum und ökumenische Bewegung (2013), and Annäherungen an Religion. Religionswissenschaftliche Erwägungen
und interreligiöser Dialog (2014).