The Dai Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teachings, commonly known as the Dai Gohonzon (Japanese: 大 御 本 尊 The Supreme (Great) Gohonzon or Honmon—Kaidan—no—Dai—Gohonzon, Japanese: 本 門 戒 壇 の 大 御 本 尊) is a venerated mandala image inscribed with both Sanskrit and Chinese logographs on a median log trunk of Japanese camphorwood.
The image is worshipped in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, which claims to possess within both the Dharma teachings and Tamashi of Nichiren as inscribed by him on wood, then carved by his artisan disciple Izumi Ajari Nippo.
The image was first explicitly mentioned in the last will and testament of Nikko Shonin for his designated successor Nichimoku, annually displayed every April 6 or 7 during the Goreiho O-mushibarai Daiho-e ceremony (English: The Airing of Sacred Treasures; 御霊宝虫払大法会) at the Head Temple.
Description
The venerated mandala has the following inscriptions on the right lower portion of the image:
"Honmon-no-Kaidan" (本門戒壇) "Ganshu Ya-shiro Kuni-shige" (願主弥四郎国重) "Hokke-shura Keihaku" (法華講衆等敬白)
This Gohonzon is also sometimes venerated as "Ichien-Bodai-Soyo Gohonzon" which refers to its bestowal to the world. Various theories continue to speculate the true identity of "Yashiro Kunishige." The High Priest Nittatsu Shonin once remarked the vague possibility that "Ya-shiro" refers to "Jin-shiro", the older brother of Yaroguro, one the three martyred disciples in 1279.
The Dai Gohonzon image is transcribed by the living incumbent who serves as High Priest of the sect (Hossu). As High Priest, this permits the rendition of the mandala to range from being fully transcribed or abbreviated or to add and subtract whatever is deemed appropriate into the Gohonzon. There are two recognized forms of a transcription of the Dai-Gohonzon:
Moji Mandala — (Transcribed on paper) Ita Gohonzon — (Transcription on wooden board)
The application for transcribing the Dai Gohonzon image is found in five forms:
Joju Gohonzon — oftentimes granted to designated temples, propagation buildings and personalities who have directly served and protected the Dai Gohonzon over the centuries. Okatagi Gohonzon — a woodblocking printed rendition that is loaned to general membership of the sect, usually framed in an ornamental scroll. Tokubetsu "Special" Okatagi Gohonzon — A larger size on a silk frame that is sometimes granted to highly commendable members on the sole discretion of a temple Chief Priest. Doshi Gohonzon — a special funeral paper Gohonzon that is portably used in religious ceremonies where a memorial remembrance is held. It oftentimes bears two extraordinary deities, the King Yenma and the "Godomyokan" (The infernal officials who assist King Yenma from the Five Lower Worlds). The 26th High Priest Nichikan Shonin transcribed Gohonzons in this manner, which has also since been customary for future High Priests to emulate. Omamori Gohonzon — a miniature paper Gohonzon in abbreviated format designated for traveling practitioners. This Gohonzon is typically sealed in a protective display case.
Mythos
According to the doctrines of Nichiren Shoshu based on the Gosho writing Jogyo-Shu-den-Sho, Nippo underwent immense fasting and prayer to the dragon goddess Shichimen, the patroness of Yamanashi prefecture. The goddess, owing her enlightenment to Nichiren, answered his prayer by sending a log in a nearby river. The Dai Gohonzon image was inscribed on a wood log procured from the water goddess by Nippo Shonin, one of his junior disciples. Recounted in the legend:
Once stored in the Kuon-ji temple in Yamanashi Prefecture, the image was later confiscated by Nikko Shonin, who designated his strongest disciple, Hyakken-bo to carry the image on his backside through the forest into the Taisekiji complex, where it remains today. Additionally, the statue of Nichiren carved by Nippo from the leftover remains of the original Camphorwood log is stored in a stupa next to the Dai-Gohonzon in the Hoando at Taisekiji.
Account tales of persecution
The Fuji School Branch refers to the Nichiren Buddhist denominations stemming from Nichiren's disciple Nikko Shonin.
The Fuji Branch believes that in the autumn of 1279, a number of Nichiren's laypeople in the Fuji District were targeted by GyōchiStone, Jacqueline I. (2014). The Atsuhara Affair: The Lotus Sutra, Persecution, and Religious Identity in the Early Nichiren Tradition, Japanese Journal of religious Studies 41 (1), 160-162
The Nichiren Shoshu sect claims the following regarding the Dai Gohonzon's nature and purpose:
That Nichiren Daishonin decided to inscribe the Dai Gohonzon as a result of these persecuting events. Furthermore, it taught as a doctrine that this served his purpose in entering the sahā world, (出世の本懐, Shusse—no—Honkai). On 12 October 1279, he inscribed the Gohonzon known as the "Dai Gohonzon," which – in contrast to other Gohonzon inscribed in this period – is intended for worship by all his disciples and believers, contemporary and future, rather than just the specific individual named on it. Furthermore, only the Sovereign of Japan can enshrine the image in its permanent Temple when widespread propagation of the religion is accomplished. The sect teaches that due to the Kamakura Shogunate refusing to heed Nichiren's prophecies on natural disasters and incoming foreign invasion, the Buddhist deities had begun to abandon Japan in its natural environment, claiming the result of arson at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangū Shrine on 14 November 1280, approximately one year after the inscription of the Dai Gohonzon image. The sect further teaches that the returning Karma punishment from the Dai Gohonzon was imposed on the police officer " Hei no Saemon-no-jō Yoritsuna" on 29 May 1293, fourteen years after murdering three of the first Hokkeko believers during the "Atsuhara Persecutions" in Suruga province. These mystical punishments included their political defeat and joint—suicide of his younger son Tametsuna Iinuma (Sukemune) and eldest son Munetsuna Nagasaki who was expelled and died in Sado island (via suicide into the sea according to pious legends).
Claims of origin Nichiren Shōshū adherents cite the following passage in Nichiren's "On Persecutions Befalling the Sage" addressed to the Buddhist Samurai warrior Shijo Nakatsukasa Saburō Saemon—no—jō Yorimoto (四条中務三郎左衛門尉頼基, 1230–1296), which they assert supports the origin story of the image: "...Shakyamuni Buddha fulfilled the purpose of his advent in a little over 40 years, — the Great Teacher Zhiyi took about 30 years — and the Great Teacher Saichō, some 20 years. I have spoken repeatedly of the indescribable persecutions they suffered during those years. For myself, Nichiren, it took 27 years, and the great persecutions I faced during this period are well known to you all."
Nikko Shonin's last will and testament document to Nichimoku Shonin, "Articles to be Observed After the Passing of Nikko" ("Nikko ato jojo no koto"), states "...The Dai-Gohonzon of the second year of Kō`an (1279), which Nikko inherited, is hereby bequeathed to Nichimoku." Two original transfer documents exist written by Nikko Shonin. Of the two, the first document is a draft written in the second year of Gentoku (1330). The second is the actual transfer document itself, dated the first year of Shoukei (1332). Both documents are signed by Nikko Shonin. The signatures on these documents have been determined to be consistent with Nikko Shonin's signature from the period in his life.
Additionally, the third High Priest, Nichimoku Shonin, stated "...The Dai-Gohonzon, which was entrusted upon the person of Nikko, is the plank Gohonzon. It is now here at this temple (Taisekiji)." From documents written by Nikko Shonin and Nichimoku Shonin, the Dai-Gohonzon was transferred between the successive high priests of Nichiren Shoshu. The fourteenth High Priest, Nisshu Shonin, stated in his writing "On Articles to Be Observed after the Passing of Nikko" ("Nikko ato jojo no koto jisho"), "...The Gohonzon concerns the transfer matters of Taiseki-ji, which denotes the exclusive transfer from one high priest to another. The Dai Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching, which Nikko Shonin inherited from the Daishonin and transferred to Nichimoku Shonin in the era of Shoan, is exactly and changelessly the whole entity of the transfer through the Nichiren–Nikko–Nichimoku lineage in the Latter Day of the Law."
The 26th High Priest, Nichikan Shonin, declared in his treatise "Exegesis on the True Object of Worship" ("Kanjin no honzon-sho mondan") the following regarding the image: "...The Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching, inscribed in the second year of Koan (1279), is the ultimate, the absolute, and the final cause of the Daishonin's advent. It is the greatest among the Three Great Secret Laws and the supreme object of worship in the entire world." Due to this charge of protecting the image, 59th High Priest Nichiko Hori declared the following regarding the matter: "In the early times, this matter (the Dai-Gohonzon) was not publicized within our school nor outside."
Claims of forgery
Fraudulent pious invention
Furthermore, such sects maintain that Nichiren never meant to permanently enshrine Buddhist Mandalas in a written format, but intended to permit both written form and Buddhist statues in the Gohonzon arrangement after his own demise. Owing to the scarcity of financial sources during Nichiren's own lifetime, they dismiss the claim of a Dai-Gohonzon's purpose and exclusive privilege to the present time.Montgomery, Daniel (1991). Fire in the Lotus, The Dynamic Religion of Nichiren, London: Mandala, , page 171"Where is Nichiren's Reference to the Dai Gohonzon?" Evers, Hope. December 9, 2005. Retrieved July 11, 2007
Possible reproductions and textual comparisons
Researchers associated with the Nichiren Mandala Study Workshop have noted discrepancies among historical transcriptions and recorded measurements of the Dai Gohonzon. Surviving records from 1600, 1764 and 1911 give different dimensions, and some early transcriptions also include inscriptions that are absent from the present wooden mandala. These differences have been discussed in relation to repeated fires at Taiseki-ji and the possibility that the present Dai Gohonzon may be a later reproduction of an earlier wooden mandala. The study does not claim that four distinct Dai Gohonzons can be conclusively identified, nor that the present Dai Gohonzon was created by the 67th High Priest Nikken Shonin. Rather, it notes that the current mandala was placed in a newly made wooden casing when it was enshrined in the Hōandō in 2002; a commemorative plaque records that this work was commissioned by the 67th abbot Nikken. The study further discusses the possibility, based on earlier research by Kawasaki Hiroshi, that the present wooden mandala may date from around 1865 following a major fire at Taiseki-ji.
The study also compares the Dai Gohonzon with a mandala inscribed by Nichiren and bestowed upon Shōsuke-bō Nichizen (日禅), a disciple of Nikkō, on 8 May 1280. It proposes that the Dai Gohonzon may have been produced through a composite process in which the central inscription was copied or traced from this Nichizen mandala. The comparison notes that the central inscriptions are nearly identical in layout and measure approximately the same height, while other elements of the Dai Gohonzon appear to derive from different sources. The article does not identify this mandala as a work by Nichizon (日尊), nor does it state that the Dai Gohonzon was based on a later mandala authored by him. Two related versions of the Nichizen mandala are preserved at Taiseki-ji and Kitayama Honmon-ji, with the Taiseki-ji version generally regarded as the original and the Kitayama version as a copy.
Falsified dating strata and amalgamation