Nichiren’s Sangha Series, Later Disciples

Nisshin was from the generation of Nichiren disciples that had no direct connection with the founder or those who did. Only his teacher Nichiei was a disciple of someone who knew a person who actually met Nichiren. He was thus detached from any sort of direct relationship, yet in the XV century the presence of Nichiren was still very tangible. As other charismatic leaders in the Muromachi period, such as Shōjin’in Nichiryū and Genmyō’in Nichijū, Nisshin was greatly inspired by Nichiren’s endeavors and those of other disciples who did not spare their efforts to emulate him. Nisshin tonsured within the Nakayama lineage and his formative years were indeed under the aegis of this tradition, where he became very inspired by the actions of Jōgyō’in Nichiyū, the third abbot of Hokekyō-ji. Nichiei as well as the fourth and fifth abbots at Hokekyō-ji have been very important for his upbringing as their own relationship to Nichiren was still concrete, albeit not direct. They had met a disciple of someone who actually knew Nichiren as it was the case of Nichiyū, a disciple of Nichikō who trained at Minobu directly under Nichiren. The level of inspiration was still huge and even if the legends about Nisshin’s ordeals were probably produced post-facto by his successors, he was definitively an iconic and charismatic preacher.