October 27, 2005
Minobu; Nichiren and the Cormorant Fisherman
Life and legends of Nichiren
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Legends of Nichiren: The Ghost of the Cormorant Fisherman
" On the eighth day of the fourth month [1274], I had an interview with Hei no Saemon. As I had expected all along, my warnings went unheeded. Altogether I had remonstrated with the authorities three times for the sole purpose of saving Japan from ruin. Mindful that one whose warnings are thrice ignored should retire to a mountain forest, I left Kamakura on the twelfth day of the fifth month. " --Nichiren
Nichiren had been invited to reside at Mt. Minobu by the Jito {Landord, Magistrate, Governor, or Steward} of southern Kai Province; Hakii/Hakiri/Hara Rokuro Nambu Sanenaga. "Lord Hakiri" had been converted to Nichiren's teachings, by Nikko. circa 1269. His Minobu domain Included three villages, Hakiri, Mimaki, and Iino. What was Kai Province, back then, is now part of modern Yamanashi Prefecture. Minobu lies to the northeast of Mount Fuji.
Nichiren was accompanied to Minobu by his close followers Nichiro, Nikko, Nitcho, and Nichiji. For about a month, while the others consrtructed a hermitage near Minobu Creek, in the Hakii area, Nichiren and Nikko would journey up the Fuji River and its tributaries, to spread the Hokke Shu Dharma.
One night, while they were on the banks of Isawa creek, a preta appeared to Nichiren, begging the Shonin to save him. It was the hungry spirit {preta, gaki} of a cormorant fisherman named Kansaku. Cormorant are dark feathered diving birds with slender hooked bills. Fisherman place metal collars tightly around the cormorant's necks; so that they can not swallow the fish they catch.
The man had been executed for poaching in sacred waters. Because of this, his restless spirit was doomed to haunt the river. Out of his great compassion, Nichiren chanted Daimoku for Kansaku, enabling him to feel contriton. In this way, Nichiren helped the fisherman redeem himself from his woeful destiny.
The story of Nichiren and the cormorant fisherman was the basis of the kabuki play Nichiren shônin minori no umi (Nichiren and the waters of Dharma), and Kuniyoshi had featured it in a series of 10 landscape prints published around 1831. Yoshitoshi Exhibition
Time Line
1274
Mar. 15: Arrives in Kashiwasaki.
Mar. 26: Arrives in Kamakura.
Apr. : Third and final remonstration with the government (with Taira Yoritsuna Hei-no Saemon).
May 12: Departs Kamakura and moves to Mt. Minobu.