Powerful Lay Patron Appoints High Priest (Part 2)

Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding Nisshun’s appointment, some criticism and opposition were expected. So when Nisshun was invited to Taiseki-ji, Nikkan, then chief priest of Hosho-ji in Edo, who had recommended Nisshun to Kyodai-in, sent the following letter to the high priest:

At Taiseki-ji, the heritage of the Law is transmitted through the Golden Utterance of the Buddha. One who receives this transmission—whether he is learned or un-learned—is a living person of Shakyamuni and Nichiren. Only by putting faith in this can people of the Latter Day sow the seed of Buddha-hood....Whoever becomes high priest, as long as he received the transmission of the heritage of the Law, should be known as a living person of Shakyamuni and Nichiren. This is the true intent of the founder [of Taiseki-ji, Nikko Shonin] and the basis for the school’s believers. (Essential Writings of the Fuji School,vol.5,p.271)

To solidify support for Nisshun, the absolute authority of high priest was once again invoked by equating the successive high priests with the Daishonin. he recorded history of the Fuji School demonstrates that the high priest’s infallibility was advocated not because the high priest was worthy of respect; rather, this unorthodox doctrine was used as convenient dogma to silence criticism against the high priest and bolster his influence.

Even after he relinquished his office, Nissei continued to enjoy some influence in the Fuji School. Many branch temples continued to enshrine Shakyamuni’s statue. Only after Nissei’s death in 1683 could Nisshun, the twenty-second high priest [a different person from the nineteenth high priest,whose name is pronounced the same yet spelled with different Chinese characters], and Nikkei, the wenty-third high priest, both of whom originally came from Yobo-ji, remove Shakyamuni’s statues from Taiseki-ji’s branch temples.

Shakyamuni’s statues were enshrined as objects of devotion for nearly fifty years at some branch temples and even sixty years at others. Even after the removal of those statues, Yobo-ji’s influence continued to be felt in the Fuji School until Nichikan, the twenty-sixth high priest, thoroughly refuted its teachings.