Nichiko
Nichiko
日講 (1626–1698)
The founder of the No Alms Accepting or Giving Nichiko (Fuju Fuse Komon) school, a branch of the No Alms Accepting or Giving (Fuju Fuse) school, in Japan. Both schools derive from the Nichiren school. A native of Kyoto, Nichiko entered Myokaku-ji temple in 1635 and studied there under Ankoku Nisshu, a disciple of Nichio of the No Alms Accepting or Giving school. In 1661 he lectured on T'ient'ai's Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra at Noro Seminary in Shimosa Province. In 1665 the Tokugawa shogunate ordered that all temples submit a document stating that temple estates authorized by the shogunate for temple possession would be acknowledged as offerings from the shogunate. Nichiko embraced the doctrine of non-acceptance of alms and non-giving of alms promulgated by Nichio, which held that priests and laypersons who are followers of Nichiren should neither give alms to, nor receive them from, those who do not accept Nichiren's teachings.Nichiko therefore objected to the shogunate decree and consequently, in 1666, was exiled to Hyuga in the southern part of Japan for the remainder of his life. There he obtained the patronage of a local lord and engaged in writing commentaries on Nichiren's works. In 1695 he completed a thirty-six-volume commentary on Nichiren's writings, the fruit of five years of study. In it, he took the position that the theoretical teaching (first fourteen chapters) of the Lotus Sutra is not inferior but equal to the essential teaching (latter fourteen chapters), a position that contradicted Nichiren's own statements such as that in The Treatment of Illness, where he writes: "Further, the Lotus Sutra itself is divided into two distinct categories, the theoretical teaching and the essential teaching.One is as different from the other as fire is from water or heaven from earth" (1112).
