A Study of Five Significant Categories of Propagation of the Lotus Sutra:

Referring to the Explanation of the Category of Teaching in Nichiren’s Works in the Kamakura Period

Abstract

Nichiren 日蓮 said that we, as people born in Japan and far from India during the Latter Age of the Dharma era, were in violation of the Buddha’s teachings and that our existence was marked by spiritual sin. My research questions in what way Nichiren preached salvation from spiritual sin.

I focus on the Five Principles (gogi 五義) because it is possible to see explanations of these Five Principles in Nichiren’s writings and in his teachings that belief in the Lotus Sutra will lead to spiritual salvation.

Research on the teachings of Nichren tends to divide his writings into three periods: the Kamakura 鎌倉, Sado 佐渡, and Minobu 身延 periods. This study considers the descriptions of his teachings in Nichiren’s Kamakura period.

Through this study, I reached the following conclusions: (1) Nichiren identified the Lotus Sutra as the best teaching in Buddhism, and (2) he preached that if one recites the Daimoku 題目, it has the same effect as one having trained in all of Buddhist teachings by listening and study.