The Mandala in Nichiren Buddhism, Volume 5

This book aims to present two important works in history of the Nichiren mandala research produced at the dawn of Japan’s modern era. Without these two works, Yamanaka Kihachi and Kataoka Zuiki may not have been inspired to produce the Nichirendaishōnin Goshinseki: Gohonzonshū collection which remains an important reference catalogue even today. The Myōshūsentetsu Honzonkagami is mostly based on legends and oral traditions of various temples that developed during the centuries after Nichiren’s passing. As the reader will immediately notice, not only several relics are evident apocryphons and some of the temples that were popular pilgrimage destinations also because of the legends related to them fell into ruin, some of the biographical dates and family ties do not always coincide. While modern scholarship has progressed immensely in the last decades, much of the knowledge about Nichiren and his group have no other base than these oral traditions created around the Edo period interpolated with Nichiren’s writings.