The Return to Kamakura
Nichiren returned to Kamakura on the twenty-sixth of the third month. He says in his autobiography:
“The Nembutsu priests said, ‘Nichiren is the enemy of Buddha Amitabha. He speaks ill of Zendo Osho and Honen Shonin. Now he is pardoned. It is not good to let him return alive.’ They prepared to kill me. I was lucky that the wind was favorable for my ship. I safely crossed the sea. I left the island on the thirteenth of the third month and reached Kamakura on the twenty-sixth of the same month.”
He visited Nagasaki Yoritsuna on the eighth of the fourth month. The autobiography goes:
“On the eighth of the fourth month I visited Hei-no-saemon-no-jo. His attitude towards me was quite different from what he had showed me before. He and the people around him were gentle and polite. A priest asked me about the Nembutsu. Another priest asked me about the Shingon. Saemon-no-jo asked me whether one can attain Buddhahood by the teachings of the sutras expounded before the Lotus Sutra. I answered them by quoting from many sutras. Saemonno-jo behaved himself like a messenger of the Emperor, and asked me when the forces of the Great Mongolia would come to Japan. I said, ‘They will come this year. You do not follow my advice. If a physician treats a patient without the knowledge of the cause of the disease, the patient will not get better but worse. If you have the Shingon priests pray for victory, Japan will be defeated. Do not request the priests of the other sects to pray, either. I say this because I think you know the teachings of the Buddha. It is strange that you accept the advice of others but not mine. I say what will come out true later. Oki-no-ho-o (the Ex-Emperor Gotoba) was an emperor. Gon-no-tayu-dono (Hojo Yoshitoki) was a subject. Emperor and subject are like father and son. How can the god Tensho-Daijin be lenient to a son who is hostile to his father? How can the god Sho-Hachiman protect a subject who stands against his king? But why was the Imperial army defeated? It was because the priests who prayed for the victory of the Imperial army were the followers of Kobo, Jikaku and Chisho. The warriors of Kamakura in those days did not know the teachings of the Shingon Sect. They did not request the Shingon priests to pray for victory. Therefore, they won the war.”
The Seclusion in Mt. Minobu
Nichiren secluded himself into Mt. Minobu on the seventeenth of the fifth month. To him, Minobu was the mountain where Buddha Sakyamuni expounded the Lotus Sutra. In the Nanjo-hyoe-shichiro-dono-gohenji he says:
“I received the One Great and Secret Truth from Buddha Sakyamuni on Mt. Sacred Eagle. I keep this truth in my heart. Therefore, my heart is the place where the Buddhas enter the samadhis. The Buddhas turn the wheel of the Law on my tongue, manifest themselves in my throat, and attain enlightenment in my mouth. I am the practiser of the Lotus Sutra. I am now living in Minobu. How can it be that this place is inferior to the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle?”
Through the efforts of Nichiren and his followers, the chanting of the Sacred Title was now beginning to be popular among the people. In 1279 Nichiren wrote:
“Namu-myohorengekyo was chanted by me for the first time. At that time no one else chanted it. The people who heard me chanting it covered their ears, glared at me, curled their lips, swang their hands, and ground their teeth. My parents, brothers, masters and friends stood against me. So did the governor. All the people of Japan were frightened and excited. In the course of time, some of them imitated my chanting of the Daimoku; others chanted it just for the purpose of kidding me, or by faith or for the purpose of slandering it. Now the one tenth of the population of Japan chant it, and the other people chant both the Nembutsu and the Daimoku or do not chant either, or chant the Nembutsu only.”
The First Mongolian Invasion
By the order of Kublai Khan, the King of Korea mobilized 30,500 ship-carpenters early in 1274, and built 900 warships by the end of the fifth month of the year. The Mongolian forces 25,600 strong, including 5,600 Koreans, set sail from the coast of Korea on the third of the tenth month, and occupied the Island of Tsushima on the fifth day and the Island of Iki on the fourteenth of the month. Five days later they marched into the Bay of Hakata, and landed at Imazu, Momohibara, and Hakata the following day. The Japanese forces had to withdraw from Hakozaki to Dazaifu on the evening of the day. The City of Hakozaki was ravaged and the Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine burnt.
The reason why the Mongolian forces went back on board on that evening is not clear. According to the Korean records, the embarkation order was issued immediately after a Mongolian general was wounded and returned to his ship. About midnight a violent storm raged and most of the ships were wrecked. It was reported that 13,500 men were missing when the Mongolian forces reached the coast of Korea on the twenty-seventh of the eleventh month.
The Second Mongolian Invasion
In 1275, a Mongolian envoy and his party came to Kamakura. The Shikken Hojo Tokimune killed them at Tatsu-no-kuchi to show his resolution to fight against the Mongols again.
Kublai Khan, who overthrew the South Sung Dynasty in 1279, utilized the military power of the fallen dynasty to attack Japan. Generals of the defeated army were appointed military advisors of the Mongols, and some of them were sent to Japan to persuade her into surrender. Warships were constructed at the ports of the Yang-tze River as well as of Korea.
The Mongolian forces 40,000 strong loaded in 900 warships started from the coast of Korea on the second of the fifth month of 1281. They occupied the islands of Tsushima and Iki and invaded the Island of Shika-no-shima in the Bay of Hakata.
On the sixteenth of the sixth month of the year Nichiren wrote to his followers as follows.
“The forces of a small country called Mongolia are now coming to the Great Japan. My disciples and lay followers! You should not discuss this among yourselves or with others carelessly. If you do, you shall be excommunicated.”
It should be noted here that Nichiren called Japan the Great Japan, and Mongolia a small country.
Another host of the Mongolian forces 100,000 strong loaded in 3,500 warships set sail from Ning-po and landed on the Island of Hirato late in the sixth month of the year. The two detached forces joined at the Island of Takashima in the Bay of Imari late in the following month. On the night of the first of the eighth month a great storm arose and most of the ships were capsized. The Mongolian forces lost almost eighty per cent of their power by the storm. The surviving soldiers returned to Korea fruitlessly.
Nichiren was not optimistic about the news of the defeat of the Mongolian forces. On the twenty-second of the tenth month of the year, he wrote to Toki Tsunenobu as follows:
“I hear that the priests of those sects boast that the generals of the Mongolian forces were captured because of their prayer. The reality is that a few warships of the enemy were damaged by an autumn wind. Ask them whether the head of the Mongolian king was brought to Kamakura or not. Do not answer any question asked by them.”