Editing Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō (section)

==History==
''[[Lotus Sutra]]'' devotion had a long history in China and Japan (especially in the [[Tiantai]] school), but it was generally associated with chanting whole chapters of the sutra, or the whole sutra itself, not simply the title. A homage similar to the daimoku is found in Chinese ritual texts belonging to the Tiantai school, such as in the Lotus Repentance of [[Zhiyi]], the founder of the tradition. However, these homage phrases are only recited once as part of the entire ritual, not as a repetitive chant.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Jacqueline |title=Chanting the August title of the Lotus Sūtra Daimoku Practices in Classical and Medieval Japan 1998 |url=https://www.academia.edu/44102085 |journal=Re-Visioning "Kamakura" Buddhism}}</ref>    

The ''Fahua ch'uan-chi'', a [[Tang dynasty]] Chinese ''Lotus Sutra'' devotional text, contains at least two stories of individuals being saved from hell by reciting "Námó miàofǎ liánhuá jīng", but this is just a single recitation, and the text does not discuss its use as a chant used in continuous religious practice.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{citation |last=Stone |first=Jacqueline |title=Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism |author-link=Jacqueline Stone}}</ref>  

=== In Heian period Japan  ===
The actual practice of chanting the Daimoku, or the title of the ''Lotus Sutra'' (in Japanese: Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō), was popularized by the [[Kamakura period|Kamakura-period]] Buddhist reformer [[Nichiren]] (1222–1282). While often assumed to be his original innovation, historical evidence suggests that the practice existed in Japan way before his time. Early references to Daimoku chanting appear in [[Heian period]] (794–1185) texts, such as ''Shui ōjōden'' and ''Hokke hyakuza kikigakisho'', where it was associated with devotion to the ''Lotus Sutra''. Nichiren, however, transformed this practice by giving it a comprehensive doctrinal foundation and advocating it as the sole means of salvation in the degenerate age of the Final Dharma ([[Decline of the Dharma|mappō]]).<ref name=":0" /> 
[[FILE:Todaiji Monaster Fukuken-saku Kannon of Hokke-do. Todai-ji.jpg|thumb|Fukūken-saku Kannon in the Hokke-dō (Lotus Sutra Ritual Hall) of [[Tōdai-ji]]. Kannon (Guanyin), who appears in the ''Lotus Sutra'', was often associated with the daimoku during the Heian period.]]
The idea that the title of the sutra held the power of the entire sutra could have been influenced by the fact that [[Zhiyi]], the Chinese founder of the [[Tiantai]] school, had explained in his commentary to the ''Lotus Sutra'' (''Fahua Xuan Yi'') that the title of the sutra contained within it the entire meaning of the whole sutra, and that it signified the sublime (miao 妙) nature of ultimate reality itself.<ref name=":152">Rhodes, Robert F. (2016). [https://otani.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/10566/files/11_Robert%20F.%20Rhodes.pdf Tiantai Hermeneutics: Zhiyi's Interpretation of the Lotus Sutra Presented in the Miaofa lianhua jing xuanyi]. In ''The Buddha's Words and Their Interpretations,'' ed. Takami Inoue and Imre Hamar, 139–153. Kyoto: The Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute, Otani University.</ref>   

The earliest authenticated use of the Japanese daimoku dates back to 881, in a prayer composed by [[Sugawara no Michizane]] for his deceased parents. In this prayer, the daimoku was actually paired with an homage to [[Guanyin|Kannon]] bodhisattva (as ''Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu, Namu myōhō renge kyō'').<ref name=":1" /> Similarly, the ''Kachio engi'' (possibly dated to the 9th century) states that the monk Shōnyo taught the chanting of Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō and Namu [[Amitābha|Amida]] Nyorai.<ref name=":1" /> 

By the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the daimoku was being chanted on the [[Tendai|Tendai school]] stronghold of [[Mount Hiei|Mt. Hiei]] as an expression of devotion to the Dharma. There is evidence of the Daimoku's use in sutra burials, inscriptions on statues, and other religious practices, indicating its growing significance in both monastic and aristocratic circles.<ref name=":1" /> These examples are often associated with Amida Buddha or Kannon. For example, a Kannon statue installed in 1012 at Koryuji temple included inscriptions of the daimoku along with the [[Nianfo|nembutsu]] (Namu Amida Butsu).<ref name=":1" />   

The ''Kūkan'' (''Contemplation of Emptiness''), a text (questionably) attributed to the Tendai monk [[Genshin]] (942–1017), states that those who "abhor the impure Saha world and aspires to the [[Sukhavati|Pure Land of Utmost Bliss]] should chant {{transliteration|ja|Namu [[Amitābha|Amida]] Butsu, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, Namu [[Kanzeon]]  Bosatsu,}}" which can be interpreted as honoring correspondingly the [[Refuge in Buddhism|three jewels]] of Buddhism.<ref name=":1">{{citation |last=Stone |first=Jacqueline |title="Chanting the August Title of the Lotus Sutra: Daimoku Practices in Classical and Medieval Japan" |url=https://www.academia.edu/44102085}} in Payne, Richard K.. ''Re-Visioning 'Kamakura' Buddhism'', Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824843939</nowiki></ref> Similar passages which contain the daimoku as a devotional chant is found in the works of Genshin's disciples, like Kakuun (953-1007), and Kakuchō (952/960-1034).<ref name=":1" />    

By the late 12th century, the daimoku began to be chanted repeatedly, similar to the [[Nianfo|nembutsu]] (chanting of [[Amitābha|Amida Buddha]]'s name), as seen in records of rituals and ceremonies from this time. Stories from setsuwa (Buddhist tales) further illustrate the daimoku's role as a simple yet powerful practice, accessible even to those with limited knowledge of Buddhism. These tales emphasize the ''Lotus Sutra''<nowiki/>'s salvific power, suggesting that even uttering its title could form a bond with the Dharma and lead to salvation. However, the practice was not yet as widespread among the common people, remaining more prominent among monks and the nobility.<ref name=":1" /> In a story found in the ''Hokke hyakuza kikigakisho,'' the daimoku (here: ''Namu ichijō myōhō renge kyō'') is recited by an illiterate Chinese monk who could not learn to chant the ''Lotus Sutra'' itself, and the practice later saves him from hell.<ref name=":1" /> 

Furthermore, during this period, a class of people known as "title chanters" (daimyōsō) emerged, who intoned the daimoku at public lectures and other ceremonies. These figures may have helped spread the practice before the rise of Nichiren Buddhism.<ref name=":1" />  

The 12th century practice of the daimoku was often paired with the nembutsu or associated with [[Pure Land Buddhism]]. One example from the early 12th century is in the ''Shui ōjōden (Gleanings of Biographies of People born in the Pure Land''), which contains a description of the practice in the context of Pure Land devotion. The text describes how Tachibana no Morisuke (d. 1096) is said to have recited the name of Amida Buddha and the title of the Lotus Sutra every evening while facing West.<ref name=":1" /> In another example, the artist [[Unkei]] <abbr>(</abbr>1150–1223) describes how during a ritual copying of the ''Lotus Sutra,'' various devotees would perform three bows for each line of the sutra he copied. With each bow they would recite the daimoku and the nembutsu. Unkei also mentions how local lay supporters of the project also chanted the nembutsu and the daimoku several thousand times.<ref name=":1" /> 

The title of the ''Lotus Sutra'' was also used by the Tendai school for [[Deity yoga|esoteric yoga]], especially in the Lotus Ritual (Hokke Hō), an esoteric Buddhist rite based on the Lotus Sutra and [[Chinese Esoteric Buddhism]]. This rite made use of mandalas, mantras and dhāraṇīs, including the [[Dharani|dhāraṇīs]] taught in the ''Lotus Sutra'', as well as the daimoku.<ref name=":24">Dolce, Lucia. [https://www.academia.edu/17614992/_Hokeky%C3%B4_to_mikky%C3%B4_The_Lotus_Sutra_and_Tantric_Buddhism_in_Hokeky%C3%B4_to_Nichiren_vol_1_of_Shirizu_Nichiren_5_vols_Komatsu_H%C3%B4sh%C3%B4_and_Hanano_J%C3%BBd%C3%B4_eds_Tokyo_Shunj%C3%BBsha_2014_pp_268_293 <nowiki>“Hokekyô to mikkyô,” [The Lotus Sutra and Tantric Buddhism]</nowiki>] in ''Hokekyô to Nichiren'', vol. 1 of ''Shirizu Nichiren'', 5 vols, Komatsu Hôshô and Hanano Jûdô, eds, Tokyo: Shunjûsha, 2014, pp. 268-293.</ref>    

==== The ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' ====

One medieval Tendai oral teachings text (''kuden homon''), the ''Shuzenji-ketsu (Doctrinal Decisions of Hsiu-ch'an-ssu),'' contains an example of daimoku chanting. The ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' recommends the chanting of daimoku as a deathbed practice, stating that this practice is a "Dharma container" which can include within it the [[Zhiyi#Threefold Truth and Threefold Contemplation|threefold contemplation of Tiantai.]] The text mentions that "through the workings of the three powers of the Wondrous Dharma [Dharma, Buddha, Faith], one shall at once attain enlightened wisdom and will not receive a body bound by birth and death."<ref name=":1" /> The text also teaches daimoku recitation as a method of contemplating the three thousand realms in one thought (ichinen sanzen), again at the time of death, and pairs it with recitation of the name of [[Guanyin|Kannon]] bodhisattva.<ref name=":1" />

The text also teaches daimoku recitation as part of a contemplative rite described as follows:<blockquote>You should make pictures of images representing the ten realms and enshrine them in ten places. Facing each image, you should, one hundred times, bow with your body, chant Namu Myoho-renge-kyo with your mouth, and contemplate with your mind. When you face the image of hell, contemplate that its fierce flames are themselves precisely emptiness, precisely provisional existence, and precisely the middle, and so on for all the images. When you face the image of the Buddha, contemplate its essence being precisely the threefold truth. You should carry out this practice for one time period in the morning and one time period in the evening. The Great Teacher Zhiyi secretly conferred this Dharma essential for the beings of dull faculties in the last age. If one wishes to escape from birth and death and attain bodhi, then first he should employ this practice. – ''Shuzenji-ketsu,'' trans. Jacqueline Stone <ref>{{Cite web |last=Ranallo-Higgins |first=Frederick M. |title=Knowing Nichiren, Scholar Jacqueline Stone on one of Buddhism's great traditions and its founder: An interview with Jacqueline Stone by Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins |url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/nichiren-buddhism-history/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review |language=en}}</ref>  </blockquote>The dating of the ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' is uncertain and it has provoked much scholarly controversy in Japan. Scholars disagree on whether the work influenced or is influenced by Nichiren, as well as whether it predates him, post-dates Nichiren, or whether it emerged independently at around the same time.<ref name=":1" /> Shimaji Daito (1875-1927) for example, places it in the cloistered rule period (1086-1185).<ref name=":1" /> Tamura Yoshiro meanwhile dates the work to 1250-1300.<ref name=":1" /> Takagi Yutaka meanwhile agrees with the view that the text is from the late [[Heian period]] and that it demonstrate's the era's concern for a proper death. Many scholars have noted that devotion to Amitabha and the Lotus Sutra were key elements of the Buddhism of the Heian period, where they were seen as complementary. The Tendai school at mount Hiei was known for a schedule of practice which focused on ''Lotus Sutra'' rites in the morning and Pure Land practices in the evening. This custom was later described through the motto "daimoku in the morning and nembutsu in the evening."<ref name=":1" /> 

=== Nichiren ===
[[File:NICHIREN_SHŌNIN_ICHIDAI_ZUE_1858_Mandala.jpg|right|thumb|Nichiren bowing before the [[Gohonzon]], a calligraphic mandala depicting the Daimoku]]
The Tendai ''Lotus Sutra'' revivalist [[Nichiren]] (1222-1282) is known today as the greatest promoter of the daimoku in the history of [[Buddhism in Japan|Japanese Buddhism]]. Nichiren saw the repetition of the daimoku as the supreme and highest practice, since the title of the sutra contained the entire [[Buddhism|Buddhadharma]] and the seed of [[Buddhahood]] itself.<ref name=":1" /> Nichiren frequently quotes passages from the ''Lotus Sutra'' in which the Buddha declared the sutra to be his highest teaching, such as "among those sutras the ''Lotus'' is the foremost!", and "this sutra is king of the sutras."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/ |title=The Lotus Sutra and its Opening and Closing Sutras |translator-last=Watson |translator-first=Burton Dewitt |chapter=The Teacher of the Law |translator-link=Burton Watson}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/ |title=The Lotus Sutra and its Opening and Closing Sutras |translator-last=Watson |translator-first=Burton Dewitt |chapter=Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King |translator-link=Burton Watson}}</ref> Nichiren writes in his ''Kanjinhonzonshō'':<ref>{{Cite web |last=Senchu |first=MURANO |year=2003 |title=Two Nichiren Texts |url=https://www.bdkamerica.org/product/two-nichiren-texts/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |series=Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research |publisher=BDK |page=88 |language=en-US}}</ref><blockquote>The bodhisattva practices cause the virtues of the Buddha. The practices and virtues of Sakyamuni, the World-honored One, are contained in the Five Characters: '''''Myōhō Renge Kyō'''''. When we keep these Five Characters, we shall automatically receive the merits that the Buddha obtained by his practices.</blockquote>Nichiren also writes that the daimoku has the following meanings:<ref>Senchu, MURANO (2003). ''Two Nichiren Texts''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. BDK. p. 103. Retrieved 2025-03-24.</ref><blockquote>1) the name of the combination of the Dharma and its simile, 2) the name of the reality of all things, 3) the name of the teaching of the One Vehicle, 4) the name of faith in the Original Buddha, and 5) the name of the supremacy of the teaching.</blockquote>According to Stone, who draws on Takagi Yutaka's work, Nichiren's daimoku practice was influenced by three key elements: earlier Heian-period daimoku practices, medieval Tendai doctrine (as seen in texts like the ''Shuzenji-ketsu''), and the nembutsu tradition popularized by [[Hōnen]]. Nichiren synthesized these influences to create a unique and exclusive practice centered on the daimoku, which became the core of his new school of Buddhism.<ref name=":0" /> Nichiren gives a detailed interpretation of the daimoku in his [[Ongi kuden#The meaning of Nam(u) Myōhō Renge Kyō|''Ongi kuden'']] and in other works. His interpretations are influenced by the writings of [[Zhiyi|Tiantai Zhiyi]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masatoshi |first=Ueki |title=Gender equality in Buddhism. |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2001 |isbn=0820451339 |pages=136, 159–161}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> 

For Nichiren, reciting the daimoku was equivalent to reciting the entire ''Lotus Sutra''. He believed that the merit and enlightenment of the Buddha would be "spontaneously transferred" to those who embraced and chanted the daimoku. This would erase their evil [[Karma in Buddhism|karma]] and allow them to attain Buddhahood in this very body.<ref name=":1" /> [[Jacqueline Stone]] writes that "Nichiren stressed salvation through faith rather than through meditative insight, and this position also represents orthodoxy for the major Nichiren denominations today."<ref name=":1" />  However, Nichiren also held that the practice of daimoku recitation could purify the mind and lead to insight. For example, in Becoming a Buddha in One Lifetime (Issho jobutsu sho), Nichiren writes:<blockquote>Even right now, the deluded mind in a single thought-moment of ignorance is an unpolished mirror. But if one polishes it, it will surely become the bright mirror that is the true [[Tathātā|suchness]] of the Dharma nature. Profoundly arouse the mind of faith and day and night, morning and evening polish it without neglect. How should one polish it? Simply chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō is what is called polishing.<ref name=":1" />  </blockquote>Nichiren's ''[[Kanjin honzon shō]]'', one of his most significant works, established the doctrinal foundation for chanting the daimoku as a practice of "mind contemplation" (觀心) suitable for the final Dharma age. In this text, Nichiren taught that the awakened Śākyamuni Buddha's accumulated practices and resulting merits are fully contained within the five characters of the daimoku, and are immediately transferred to the practitioner upon chanting. Consequently, one can achieve the merits of the six perfections without pursuing each practice individually. The ''Kanjin honzon shō'' also introduced the concept of the “great maṇḍala” ([[Gohonzon|daimandara]]), a calligraphic representation of the Lotus assembly inspired by esoteric iconography. Nichiren created over 120 examples of this maṇḍala, in which the daimoku is prominently inscribed down the center, flanked by the names of Śākyamuni and [[Prabhutaratna|Many Jewels Buddha]], reflecting the scene described in the Lotus Sūtra where these Buddhas sit together in the jeweled stūpa. Nichiren taught that through faith in the Lotus Sūtra and the chanting of the daimoku, the devotee "enters" this maṇḍala, thereby participating in the enlightened reality of the primordial Buddha.<ref>Stone, J. "Nichiren", in ''Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism'', vol. II: Lives (pp. 1076-1087).</ref>

Nichiren's emphasis on daimoku as an exclusive practice paralleled (and may have been influenced by) the development of [[Hōnen|Hōnen's]] exclusive ''[[Nianfo|nembutsu]]''. Although Tendai and other Buddhist traditions included recitation-based practices (usually based on nembutsu, [[Mantra|mantras]] or whole sutras, like the ''[[Heart Sutra]]'' or ''[[Amitābha Sūtra|Amitabha Sutra]]''), Nichiren elevated the chanting of the daimoku to an exclusive and universal method of attaining enlightenment. Nichiren claimed that the daimoku was the ''only'' method to happiness and salvation suited for the [[Mappo|age of Dharma decline]], while other practices were useless.<ref name=":4">Stone, Jacqueline. “Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus: Nichirenist Exclusivism in Historical Perspective.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'', vol. 21, no. 2/3, 1994, pp. 231–59. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233527</nowiki>. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.</ref> As such, mixing the daimoku with other practices (as the Buddhists of the Heian period had done) was seen by Nichiren as being “like mixing rice with excrement.”<ref name=":4" /> This exclusive stance has been seen as intolerant and radical by some modern scholars, but it was actually a common feature of [[Kamakura Buddhism]], and can be seen in [[Hōnen]] for example.<ref name=":4" /> What was unique to Nichiren however was the direct confrontational stance which he took against other sects (which was the basis for the sect's ''[[shakubuku]]'' [[proselytism]]).<ref>Stone, Jacqueline. “Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus: Nichirenist Exclusivism in Historical Perspective.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'', vol. 21, no. 2/3, 1994, pp. 231–59. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233527</nowiki>. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.</ref> 

Within the early Nichiren community, interpretations of the daimoku practice varied, with some followers viewing it as an expression of faith, while others understood it as a meditative discipline or a means of achieving worldly benefits. His doctrine integrated elements of Tendai philosophy, esoteric Buddhism, and contemporary concerns about the age of mappō, which contributed to its wide appeal.<ref name=":0" />