Nichiren's Successors

After Nichiren Daishonin died in 1282, his six senior priests and one of his disciples started their own schools of Buddhism teaching Nichiren Buddhism as they saw it.

The five main schools were:

The Fuji School established by Nikko Shonin

The Minobu School established by Niko Shonin

The Hama School established by Nissho Shonin

The Ikegami School established by Nichiro Shonin and Nitcho Shonin (who 20 years later joined Nikko Shonin’s Fuji School)

Nichiji Shonin also established a school, but after he moved to Asia his school is thought to have died out.

Another school, The Nakayama School, was started by Toki Jonin (one of Nichiren’s disciples)

Nikko Shonin, founder of Nichiren Shoshu, is the legitimate successor of Nichiren Daishonin, although the other schools dispute this and claim Nichiren left his teachings to all of them equally.

In the late 1950s, the four remaining schools (Minobu, Hama, Ikegami and Nakayama) merged together, changed their name to Nichiren Shu (Nichiren School) and established their head temple at Mt. Minobu.  They chant “NAMU Myoho Renge Kyo” instead of “NAM Myoho Renge Kyo” and still believe the object of worship can be a Gohonzon, an inscription of "Namu-myoho-renge-kyo", statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and statues of the four Bodhisattvas of the Earth.  Nichiren Shu claim that Nichiren’s ashes are still entombed at Mt. Minobu, but Nikko Shonin is supposed to have taken these with him to Taiseki-ji when he left.

One of the other older schools of Nichiren Buddhism is Kempon Hokke Shu (literally The Lotus Sutra Revealing The Original Buddha School).  It doesn’t have a direct lineage to Nichiren Daishonin, but was founded in 1384 by Nichiju.  Nichiju (often referred to as the Master) was part of the Tendai school but after being introduced to, and studying, Nichiren’s teachings decided to become a follower of Hokke (the Lotus Sutra).  He believed that the existing schools of Nichiren Buddhism had deviated from Nichiren’s true teachings and established Myomanji-ha, which later changed its name to Kempon Hokke.  Like Nichiren Shu, they chant "NAMU Myoho Renge Kyo" but their object of devotion is, like Nichiren Shoshu,  exclusively the Gohonzon.  Their main text is the Lotus Sutra which is supported by the writings of Nichiren Daishonin that they consider authentic. 

 

The two major schools of Nichiren Buddhism today are Nichiren Shoshu and Nichiren Shu and, apart from Kempon Hokke, all of the other Nichiren Buddhist schools generally come from lay organisations or spin-offs of these two groups from the 1930s onwards.   The Soka Gakkai is a lay organisation of the Nichiren Shoshu / Fuji School of Buddhism and we believe, as do all of the other schools, that we are correctly following the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin.  (See also http://nichirenbuddhist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-single-truth.html  )