THE PICTORIAL LIFE OF SAINT NICHIREN

Scene 18 The Tatsu-no-kuchi Plot of Assassination

On January 18^th, 1268, the first envoys arrived from the Mongol court. They brought with them a demand that Japan become a vassal state of the Mongol Empire. This occasion fulfilled the prophecy made by St. Nichiren in his Rissho ankoku ron in which he predicted the disaster of foreign invasion. The Saint proposed that the military government and influential temples immediately give up their trust in erroneous religious sects and place their faith in the correct religious teachings of the Lotus Sutra. As a result of this there was much enmity and animosity directed toward him.

On September 12^th, 1271, due to a plot by a group of Jodo Sect followers, St. Nichiren was suddenly arrested and sentenced to execution. He was then taken to Tatsunokuchi (located on Yuigahama beach in Kamakura). This was the third great persecution suffered by the Saint.

As the heavily guarded procession neared the beach, more armed men could be seen silhouetted by a number of bonfires. As an executioner was about to strike the Saint, a blinding bolt of lightening shattered the ominous darkness. It is said that the executioner's sword was struck and broken into three pieces. The guards were seen hugging the sand and running or crawling away, stricken with fear. The plot on his life was foiled and their leader. Hei-no-saemon, was not found until sometime later.

Scene 19 The Tsukahara Samadhi Shed

St. Nichiren, having miraculously escaped with his life at Tatsunokuchi, found his death sentence commuted to exile on Sado Island, a place where criminals were disposed of in those days. This was the fourth great persecution suffered by the Saint. The year was 1271 and St. Nichiren was fifty years old.

On November 1^st, 1271, the Saint was escorted to a small, crumbling shack on Sado Island. The place was called Tsukahara and it was here that the Sado islanders disposed of their dead. He was abandoned there to survive the freezing winter cold with only a straw cape to keep him warm.