代表的日本人(日蓮の章⑤私訳)

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V.—Alone against the World.
5.--たった一人で世界に抗う

Rejected at home, he made his way right into Kamakura, the capital of the country, "the best place for disseminating the truth." There in a spot owned by nobody, in what is still called Matsubaga-Tani (Pine-Leaf's Dale), he had a little straw-hut built for him. Here he posted himself with his Pundarika Sutra, —an independent man, to begin his conquest of errors around him. The great Nichiren Sect had its beginning in this hut.  The stupendous temple-structures at Minobu, Ikegami, and other places, with more than five thousand temples in the land, and two-million souls that worship in them, —all had their beginning in this hut and this one man. So are great works always born. One indomitable soul, and the world against him, —therein lies the promise of all permanent greatness. The twentieth century may well learn of this man, of his faith and bravery, if not of his doctrines. Had Christianity itself such a beginning in Japan ? Mission-schools, mission-churches, allowances in money, helps in men, —great Nichiren, he began with himself alone, with none of these !

故郷を追い出された日蓮は、直ちに鎌倉へ向かいました。鎌倉と言えばそうです、この国の首都にして「真理を弘める最適な場所」です。彼は、誰も住んでいなかった松葉ヶ谷という場所に、小さな藁小屋を構えました。ここで彼は、自身の使命たる法華経を宣揚するのです--どこにも所属しない彼は、周りにはびこる誤った教えを説き伏せる戦いを開始したのです。日蓮教団の全ての門流、その原点がこの小屋なのです。身延や池上にある壮大な寺院建築はもちろんのこと、全国には5,000以上の寺院があり、200万人が熱烈に信仰しています。全ては、この小屋とこの男から始まりました。偉大な事業というのは、常にこのようにして成し遂げられるものです。たった1人の不屈の魂と、対峙する全世界−−そこにおいて、あらゆる永久不滅の偉大なるものが約束されるのです。20世紀、我々はこの男から多くを学ぶことができるでしょう。彼の教義ではなく、彼の信仰と勇敢な生き様に学ぶのです。日本において、キリスト教はこのように始まりましたか？伝道学校、伝道教会、金銭的な援助、そういったものが私たち[キリスト者]を助けてくれているではありませんか。偉大なる日蓮は、そのような助けは何もなく、ただ1人で歩み始めたのです！

【次回予告】For a year he is silent once more in study and contemplation. Meanwhile he had his first disciple, named Nisshō afterward, who came all the way from Eizan, attracted by the views they had in common upon the state of Buddhism in Japan. Nichiren is exceedingly glad, because he can now appear before the public, and lay down his life there without the fear of his doctrines being lost to his country. So he began in the spring of 1254 what was never heard of before in the land, —street preaching. He
repeated materially, amidst the gibes and railings of the metropolitan hearers, what he had first proclaimed to his townsmen. To the retort that it was not becoming for a man of his order to preach by the way-side, his decisive answer was that it was becoming for a man to eat standing in time of war. To the rebuke that he must not speak evil of the faith adored by the ruler of the land, his plain reply was that " the priest is Buddha's messenger, and fear of the world and men agrees not with his vocation.'' To the natural doubt that the other forms of worship could not all be mistaken, his simple explanation was that " the scaffold is of use only till the temple is done." For six years he preached in this manner, in season and out of season, till his work and person began to call public attention. Among his disciples were counted not a few of men in high authority, some even of the Shogun's household, and there was a fear that the whole city might be carried away by his influence, if not checked in due time. There was Abbott Dōryu of Kenchō-ji, Abbott Ryōchū of Kōmyō-ji, Ryōkwan of Gokuraku-ji, Ryūkwan of Daibutsu-ji, etc., all high dignitaries of vast influence, who took counsel
together for the suppression of the rising faith in the capital. But Nichiren's audacity was more than all their united efforts against him. Taking advantage of many calamities that had recently befallen the land, he prepared what is still considered the most remarkable production of the kind,— Rissei-Ankoku-Ron, A Treatise on Bringing Peace and Right-eousness to the Country. Therein he recounted all the evils from which the land was then suffering, and traced their cause to the false doctrines taught among the people. These he proved by extensive quotations from sutras. The remedy, in his view, lay in the universal acceptation by the nation of the highest of all sutras, the Pundarika ; and pointed out, as the sure result of refusal of such a gift, civil wars and a foreign invasion. Never before were more caustic terms applied to the church-dignitaries of the land. The whole treatise was a battle-cry, a declaration of war of the most determined kind, which if fought through, could have but one issue, the extirpation of his sect, or of all the other sects. It was enthusiasm indistinguishable from madness, and Hojo Tokiyori, among the wisest of the rulers the country has had, decided upon its suppression by the removal of the zealot from the capital. But the politic man did not know the kind of soul he was dealing with. It was a soul prepared for death, and with such sincerity in it that it had already begotten other souls like It, no less prepared for encounter with all kinds of trial, as was abundantly proved afterward. Nothing could intimidate these men, and "warfare against Buddha's enemies " was carried on with unabated vigor, till by force the little company was disbanded and its leader carried away as an exile to a far-off province.