The Japanese monk Nichiren teaches that the Lotus Sutra alone holds the truth for this degenerate age and that chanting its title, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, is the practice for all people; persecuted and exiled for his denunciations of the other schools and the state, he founds the tradition that carries his name.
Tagged: Buddhist Mahayana Nichiren Buddhism
The Event
- Date
- 1222–1282 (exact)
- Era
- Medieval; Standard periodization of Buddhist history
- Location
- Kamakura and Minobu; today Japan
- Traditions
- Buddhism
- Streams
- Nichiren Buddhism, Mahayana
- Key figures
- Nichiren
- Key texts
- Rissho Ankoku Ron
Primary Sources
- Nichiren, Rissho Ankoku Ron
Secondary Sources
- Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Hawaii, 1999)
- Buswell and Lopez, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton, 2014)
Provenance: HIST-0423; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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