Three martyrs of Atsuhara
three martyrs of Atsuhara
[熱原の三烈士] (Jpn Atsuhara-no-sanresshi )
Three followers of Nichiren who were arrested and beheaded during the Atsuhara Persecution. They were brothers named Jinshiro, Yagoro, and Yarokuro, farmers in Atsuhara Village in Fuji District of Suruga Province, Japan. They converted to Nichiren's teachings in 1278, when propagation was advancing rapidly in the Fuji area under the leadership of Nikko.Many priests and laypersons in the area converted, among them three priests of Ryusen-ji, a local temple of the Tendai school. Alarmed by this, Gyochi, the temple's deputy chief priest, began to conspire with the authorities to threaten local believers. On the twenty-first day of the ninth month in 1279, twenty farmers, all followers of Nichiren, were arrested on the false charge of stealing rice from fields belonging to Ryusen-ji and were taken to Kamakura and imprisoned. They were told that they would be freed if they renounced faith in the Lotus Sutra and agreed to recite the Nembutsu (the name of Amida Buddha). None complied, and the three brothers were beheaded on the fifteenth day of the tenth month as an example. According to another account, their execution took place on the eighth day of the fourth month in 1280. Even after their deaths, however, the others are said to have remained firm in their faith. Eventually they were all banished from Atsuhara.
See also Atsuhara Persecution.
