A week ago, I received an email from a Shoshu believer, and said they had been reading some old posts and wanted to ask me about the "Jogyo Shoden-sho' because her Temple is using it as a tool to support their case that the DaiGohzonon is authentic. She was deathly afraid to have her name appear here, and asked me to answer her question, and at first I said no, but here it is.
Way back when running the Kempon Hokke, with the help of Kemon Priests I learned that this is also called the "Matsunodono Gosho". This Gosho is also a down-right no good dirty rotten forgery [hahaha]. Although this so-called letter is included in the Fuji Seiten they themselves, in the Fuji School, state in the Fuji Seiten that this Gosho should not be trusted because it is a forgery for it differs to the historical fact, need to hear more.. thought so.
One reason they themselves admit that it is a forgery is because it says 'Nippo wanted to carve a statue of Nichiren. and He (Nippo)Prayed to Shichimen Daimyojiu. Was it a response to his prayers that He found a log floating in .."
If they insist that it is true, then they must admit that they allow people in the Fuji Faith to pray to Shichimen Daimyojin (a goddess dragon with seven faces) which they came to think washeresy in the later ages, and now make fun of today, especially those in Nichiren Shu.. To be fair, you can look it up and learn that faith in Shichimen Daimyojin arose during the ages considerably after the death of Nichiren.
And another reason is that this Gosho goes on to say: “To have faith in only Nippo means to have faith in Nichiren".
If they admit this, then of course they sould have to rank Nippo above Nikko, that is super inconvenient for them. The course of events was that they forged this Gosho in order to show that Ita-Mandara was not forged by Nichi-u but was carved by Nippo, in opposition to the claims (Taisekiji-Ouwaka-Kempon-Show, etc.) by Nichi-jo. head priest of Kitayama Hommonji. However, they were so attached to making a lie about Nippo at that time that they forged a letter and said it came from Nichiren which embarrasses themselves later, but this is not to well known, and hidden from most Shoshu Fuji believers.
Maltz
Posted by chogenki at April 12, 2008 03:52 PMExcellent entry. I don't know that I have ever seen this particular Gosho. Do you know if it is in the Soka Gakkai Gosho? I would expect it not to be...
RG
Posted by: Rev. Greg at April 12, 2008 05:10 PMMoron that;
"Although this so-called letter is included in the Fuji Seiten they themselves, in the Fuji School, state in the Fuji Seiten that this Gosho should not be trusted because it is a forgery for it differs to the historical fact, need to hear more.."
I wanted, without actually looking up dates, that serious examination of forged and questionable Gosho really didn't start until the late 1800's, and mostly during the first part of the 1900's. Until then most every Gosho was included in the Nichiren Corpus.
RG
Posted by: Rev. Greg at April 12, 2008 05:14 PMI posted a more complete translation of this, included in "Biography of Nippo". Enjoy..
Maltz
Posted by: Bruce Maltz at April 12, 2008 08:48 PM