I’ve returned from my yearly pilgrimage to Japan.
I trained at length with my sword teacher Machida Kancho in Noda Japan. After the last day of training I sat in his Mikkyo temple as he performed (for a lack of the proper term) his Mikkyo Shingon Gongyo.
This of course is a tremendous curiosity to me as this ceremony is both familiar on one hand, completely alien on another. This year his wife played along on the large taiko drum as he recited his sutras. Interestingly she played in 7/8. Prior to beginning he rearranged his mokto (wood bell) and his temple bell in much the same way I may have rearranged my drumset.
Every year I see his temple change, ornate statues and objects rearranged, new ones added, things I was familiar with disappear. It’s all very mysterious.
Following the service were the presentation of various things and then immediately following that - a 6.4 Earthquake.
Was this the almighty cosmic hand of Fudo Myo stamping his approval? Was it a divine admonishment for a Nichiren faithful attending a Mikkyo service?
Fudo Myo is a curious character. An eternally stern individual, he forever wields an ancient Chinese sword, or Ken in one hand, a piece of rope in the other. An administrator of universal justice, he’s like the 911 for the Universe, at least from a certain point of view.
On the previous day I had completed my shopping at the Noda Shrine shop. Many Bujinkan students shop there purchasing their kamidana and other supplies for their dojos. Few are actually Sinto or Buddhist or even truly religious, rather their patronage is based on the Bujinkan. The shop keepers realize this and expect that all Geigin are students of Hatsumi, or another individual (he who must not be named) who also lives in Noda.
I asked the shop keeper “Nichiren juzu doko deska?” (where are your Nichiren Juzu beads). He initially failed to understand what I was asking. I then clarified “Nichiren Buddhist, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo”. He laughed long as he walked towards his storage bins to look. His laugh was not at all a kind laughter. I’ve sensed this in previous years. Apparently there are no Nichiren Temples in Noda…
It just gets curiouser and curiouser…
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
In my (very limited) experience with both Japanese people and foreign ex-pats living in Japan, there seems to be an almost universal opinion that the "people who stand around chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" are kind of freaks apparently obsessed with magic and getting rich by chanting this mantra.
Yes, its all true, we are all seen as freaks standing around chanting for money. I have many times asked why we are seen this way, The standard answers appear to be:
1. You chant for money, we do not. The only time we do is at New Year when we go to the temple to pray for a good year and have to pay for this privilege.
2. You are perceived as a cult.
3. You are associated with a political party that does have some power in the Diet.
4. You survived without a priesthood, all religions need a priesthood
5. You are a rich organization and have that rich and powerful leader President Ikeda who has done all kinds of bad things
6. You seem to win most legal cases that you enter into because you have influence
7. Your people do seem to end up getting money, must be magic since you cant be a religion with no priests
8. You build large expensive Kaikans at the drop of a hat.
And it is usually true that none of these people used the word "Nichiren" (or for that matter "Buddhist") in reference to these people they are deriding, Instead they refer to them as Sokka Gakkai members. They have a really hard time seeing us as anything else. This is not really that surprising since The Sokka Gakkai are on a media blitz campaign with their newspapers and various publications. Although the content contains a lot of Buddhism, it mostly has to do with PR for President Ikeda and the organization. I mean, lets be honest, he gets more media coverage than the Emperor and all the members of the government put together. With all this media frenzy it is all to easy for them to forget we are Buddhists and just view us as part of a rich and powerful cult. We should also remember that we are only one of a large number of groups that has Nichiren at their Apex, but these other groups do not have our monies, properties or political influence. These smaller groups are seen as religions, we because of how large we have become are not. The public are also very aware that we got booted out by our priesthood because our money, influence and growth were seen as a direct challenge to the authority of the priesthood. Well if you were Joe Soap out there in public land and you read all this, you would probably also have the same feeling for Sokka Gakkai members.
In short, to much emphasis has been placed on President Ikeda and the Organization, and not enough on the simple people who do all these activities and are responsible for the spreading of this Buddhism. I believe we have very stupidly put the "Cart before the Horse"and the results are already very apparent.
Oops...
Posted by: Adrian at December 11, 2005 03:22 AMKinda thought someone(s) would have lept at this, guess not...
Look for a reply in my next blog, this is just too big for a reply...
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at December 11, 2005 01:19 AM
This might or might not be the place and time to ask this question, but Greg's post about the fellow in the shop being a little unkind sort of reminded me of this...
In my (very limited) experience with both Japanese people and foreign ex-pats living in Japan, there seems to be an almost universal opinion that the "people who stand around chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" are kind of freaks apparently obsessed with magic and getting rich by chanting this mantra.
Now I don't mean to imply that this is my opinion. None of these people (in my recollection) ever even used the word "Nichiren" (or for that matter "Buddhist") in reference to these people they were deriding. Only one day when Greg was talking about Nichiren Buddhism did I make the connection between these people and Greg and Nichiren Buddhism.
One particularly noteworthy point here is that none of these times when this rather unfriendly opinion came up were in the context of discussions of Buddhism, religion, or anything of the sort... more often in the context of talking about (to put it generously) "odd people".
Since it seems like everyong who reads this is a Nichiren Buddhist, can anyone explain all of this to me? Does Nichiren really have such a bad rap in Japan? Is it just the people I happen to know? Is there some other group of people that they are talking about, and maybe I am incorrectly associating "those" folks with Nichiren Buddhism?
All of this is just for my own clarification, but it all kind of came back into my mind in a flash when the shop keeper was not too nice to Greg.