The Significance of Ichinyoin Nichijū’s Studies

Abstract

Ichinyoin Nichijū 一如院日重 （1549–1623） was a Buddhist priest active mainly in Kyoto between the Azuchi-Momoyama and the early Edo periods. One of the characteristics of Nichijū’s academic studies is that he devoted himself to a wide-range of studies of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist scriptures. His attitude toward various studies is at odds with the school of thought that focuses narrowly on the study of Nichiren’s writings and relics. This paper therefore examines Nichijū’s motivation for devoting himself to various studies through his book, the Kenmon guanki 見聞愚案記.

This paper concludes that Nichijū took the position of allowing such studies and presented the Lotus Sūtra’s Teacher of the Law chapter 法師品 （the 10th） and the Sange gakushōshiki 山家学生式 written by Saichō as proofs of his attitude, while recognizing the opposing concept of whether or not to allow non-Buddhist studies based on Buddhist teachings. This paper also confirms that Nichijū considered himself to be “a master of the lowest of the lowliest of vulgarities” and thus proclaimed that he had to study both Buddhist and non-Buddhist scriptures extensively in order to propagate Buddhism as a disciple of the Buddha and a follower of Nichiren.