Blackwell Reference Online

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[ xxvi ] The chief significance of the Honmon Butsuryushu is that it was the first of the lay Japanese B uddhist associations to place special emphasis on the Lotus Sutra. Reiyukai, Rissho Koseikai and Soka Gakkai are its leading successors. [9: x , 208] Nagamatsu Nissen (1817–90), the founder, took the tonsure in the Nichiren school Honmon Hokke sect in 1848. Disappointed, however, with the stifling monastic life, he left the order and in 1857 formed the Honmon Butsuryuko, an association of Jay believers affiliated with the Honmon Hokke sect. Continuing his criticisms of Buddhist clerics and their organizations, he devoted himself to building up a lay community of believers, using aggressive recruitment tactics and extolling the health benefits that would follow from drinking the water from their head temple. The Buddhist establishment and the medical establishment, thus challenged, responded by repeatedly bringing charges against Nissen and his group, who often spent time in police custody, but the association continued to attract new members. After Nissen's death, the Honmon Butsuryuko lost its character as a lay association and became an organization of Buddhist laypeople and clerics. As Honmon Butsuryushu, a sect rather than an association, it became independent in 1947. The head temple, Yuseiji, is in Kyoto. Honmon Butsuryushu has followers in Brazil, South Korea, China, ... log in or subscribe to read full text