Hakiri Sanenaga

Hakiri Sanenaga 波木井実長 (1222–1297)

Also known as Hakii Sanenaga, Hakiri RokuroSanenaga, or Nambu RokuroSanenaga. The steward of the southern part of Kai Province that included the Minobu area and its three villages, Hakiri, Mimaki, and Iino. He was converted by Nikkoto Nichiren's teachings around 1269. When Nichiren resolved to leave Kamakura, Hakiri eagerly welcomed him to Minobu and con-structed a small dwelling for him. In 1281 he built a temple and donated it to Nichiren, who named it Kuon-ji. After Nichiren's death, he served Nichiren's successor, Nikko. Influenced by Niko, then the chief instructor of priests, however, he later strayed from Nikko's instruction. Nikoseems to have lost Nichiren's spirit to strictly distinguish between the true and provisional teachings and later disassociated himself from Nichiren's teachings and Nikkoby, among other things, identifying himself as a priest of the Tendai school. As a result of his relationship with Niko, Hakiri deviated from Nichiren's teachings by committing four acts Nichiren had forbidden as inappropriate for practitioners of the correct teaching: He commissioned a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, made pilgrimages to Shinto shrines, made donations for the construction of a stone tower of the Pure Land teaching in Fukushi Village, and had a Pure Land seminary built. These actions prompted Nikko, who felt responsible for protecting the purity of Nichiren's teachings, to leave Minobu in 1289.