059 The Royal Palace

This letter was written in reply to a report from Shijō Kingo that fires had broken out at both Gokuraku-ji temple and the palace of the shogun, the military ruler. Gokuraku-ji, a temple of the True Word Precepts school in Kamakura, burned down in the third month of 1275.

Japan at that time was in a state of upheaval. In the tenth month of 1274, the Mongols launched a massive military attack against the southern part of the country. This contributed to the extreme anxiety of the people. The Mongol threat increased as another envoy from Khubilai Khan arrived in the fourth month of 1275, demanding that Japan swear allegiance to the Mongol empire or face another attack.

Nichiren Daishonin attributes the fires in Kamakura and other calamities to the people’s loss of good fortune, which he says was brought about by their slander of the correct teaching. The title of this letter is taken from the ancient story of Rājagriha (Royal Palace), the capital of the kingdom of Magadha, India. The Daishonin cites this story, which appears in T’ien-t’ai’s Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, to support his point about the necessity of good fortune.

In a play on words, the Daishonin refers to the chief priest of Gokuraku-ji, Ryōkan-bō (Priest Ryōkan), as Ryōka-bō (Priest Two Fires), to show that the burning of Gokuraku-ji and the shogun’s palace stemmed from Ryōkan’s slander of the Lotus Sutra. The phrase “two fires” has two meanings. It indicates the fire that consumed both Gokuraku-ji and the palace—the centers of religion and government. And it means that Ryōkan’s slander not only has brought about conflagration—one of the seven disasters—in this world, but also will cause him and his followers to fall into “fire,” or the state of hell, in the next.

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