the Law, [Buddhism will rise in the east and] illuminate the west. The Law has already appeared. The signs heralding its advent far surpass those of previous ages. When I gave this some thought, I realized that it is because the time has so decreed it. The sutra states, “[Among these bodhisattvas] were four leaders. The first was called Superior Practices . . . ”7 It also reads, “In the evil age of the Latter Day of the Law if there is someone who can uphold this sutra . . . ,”8 and “If you were to seize Mount Sumeru and fling it far off . . . [that too would not be difficult].”9
I would like you to gather and keep in one place the five folding notebooks I mentioned to you, which contain essential passages from the complete collection of the scriptures and from The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom. Please make sure that the essential passages from the treatises and commen
taries are not scattered and lost. And please tell the young priests that they should not neglect their studies. You absolutely must not lament over my exile. It says in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter and in the “Never Disparaging” chapter [that the votary of the Lotus Sutra will meet with persecution]. Life is limited; we must not begrudge it. What we should ultimately aspire to is the Buddha land.
The twenty-third day of the eleventh month in the eighth year of Bun’ei (1271)
Reply to the lay priest TokiI am sending back some of the young priests. You can ask them what this province is like and about the circumstances in which I live. It is impossible to describe these matters in writing.
On the twenty-eighth day of the tenth month, 1271, Nichiren Daishonin arrived at Sado Island. On the first day of the eleventh month, he was taken to Tsukahara, a desolate field used as a graveyard that was to be his dwelling place on Sado. He was given as lodging a small dilapidated shrine called Sammai-do. Wind and snow blew in through gaping holes in its walls and roof. Perhaps because of the severe lack of food and shelter, the Daishonin soon sent back to the mainland some of the priests who had accompanied him. Just before their departure, he wrote this letter and entrusted it to them for his staunch follower Toki Jonin. It is believed to be the first letter he wrote from Sado Island.
While the Daishonin was in exile on Sado, he relied on Toki to convey mes
sages of encouragement to believers in the Shimosa area. This particular letter indicates that he had also asked Toki to look after his books and papers during his absence.
In the letter, he voices his readiness to meet death if necessary for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, and his joy at knowing himself to be the sutra’s votary. He also declares that the supreme Law never before revealed by any of the great Buddhist teachers of the past has now made its advent. He interprets the great Shoka earthquake of 1257 as an omen of its rise, and cites various passages from the Lotus Sutra and other sources to substantiate his assertion that now, the beginning of the Latter Day, is the time for this great Law to spread.
In the last few lines of the letter, the
