Editing Nichiren (section)

=== Writings to women ===
Against a backdrop of earlier Buddhist teachings that deny the possibility of enlightenment to women or reserve that possibility for life after death, Nichiren is highly sympathetic to women. Based on various passages from the ''Lotus Sutra'', Nichiren asserts that "Other sutras are written for men only. This sutra is for everyone."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kurihara |first=Toshie |date=2003 |title=A History of Women in Japanese Buddhism: Nichiren's Perspectives on the Enlightenment of Women |journal=The Journal of Oriental Studies |volume=13 |page=94 |url=http://www.iop.or.jp/0313/kurihara.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314095112/http://www.iop.or.jp/0313/kurihara.pdf |archive-date=14 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>Oguri, Junko. 1987. '' Nyonin ojo: Nihon-shi ni miru onna no sukui ''(Women's Capacity to Be Reborn in the Pure Land: Women's Salvation in Japanese History). Jimbun Shoin, p. 122. See also: Oguri, Junko. 1984. "Views on Women's Salvation in Japanese Buddhism" in Young East 10/1, pp 3–11.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=385&m=0&q=| title = (WND, p. 385)| access-date = 28 October 2010| archive-date = 1 October 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111001041038/http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=385&m=0&q=| url-status = live}}</ref>

Ninety of his extant letters, nearly a fifth of the total, were addressed to female correspondents.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ADQNAQAAMAAJ&q=nichiren+extant|title=Gender Equality in Buddhism|last=Ueki|first=Masatoshi|page=114|date=2001|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-5133-6|access-date=21 October 2018|archive-date=1 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601192136/https://books.google.com/books?id=ADQNAQAAMAAJ&q=nichiren+extant|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nichiren Shu]] has published separate volumes with those writings.<ref>Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Translated by Nichiren Shu Overseas Ministers in North America, Edited and Compiled by Kyotsu Hori, published 1995 by Nichiren Shu Overseas Propagation Promotion Association</ref> In these letters Nichiren plays particular attention to the instantaneous attainment of enlightenment of [[Longnü|the Dragon King's daughter]] in the "Devadatta" (Twelfth) chapter of the ''Lotus Sutra'' and displays deep concern for the fears and worries of his female disciples.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rasplica Rodd|first=Laurel|title=Nichiren's Teachings to Women|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wcaaspapers/vol1/iss5/1|journal=Selected Papers in Asian Studies: Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies|date=6 June 2016|volume=1|issue=5|pages=8–18|access-date=17 September 2018|archive-date=18 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918090920/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wcaaspapers/vol1/iss5/1/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, Bernard Faure,{{ISBN|978-1-4008-2561-5}}, Princeton University Press, 2009, p.93</ref>