Editing Nichiren Buddhism (section)

==== Final stage: 1274–1282 ====
Nichiren's teachings reached their full maturity between the years 1274 and 1282 while he resided in primitive settings at Mount [[Minobu, Yamanashi|Minobu]] located in today's [[Yamanashi Prefecture]]. During this time he devoted himself to training disciples,<ref name=Stone1999a />{{rp|261}} produced most of the ''Gohonzon'' which he sent to followers,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dolce|first=Lucia|date=1999|title=Criticism and Appropriation Nichiren's Attitude toward Esoteric Buddhism|url=https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2689|journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies|volume=26/3–4|access-date=30 January 2018|archive-date=2 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602150120/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2689|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|377}} and authored works constituting half of his extant writings<ref name=Stone1999a />{{rp|191}}<ref name=Christensen2001 />{{rp|115}} including six treatises that were categorized by his follower Nikkō as among his ten most important.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/T/58|title=ten major writings – Dictionary of Buddhism – Nichiren Buddhism Library|website=www.nichirenlibrary.org|access-date=30 January 2018|archive-date=14 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214190827/http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/T/58|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1278 the "Atsuhara Affair" ("Atsuhara Persecution") occurred, culminating three years later.<ref name=Stone2014>{{Cite journal|last=Stone|first=Jacqueline I.|date=2014|title=The Atsuhara Affair: The Lotus Sutra, Persecution, and Religious Identity in the Early Nichiren Tradition|url=https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/4334|journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies|volume=41/1|pages=153–189|access-date=30 January 2018|archive-date=2 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602211423/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/4334|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|153}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/A/109|title=Atsuhara Persecution – Dictionary of Buddhism – Nichiren Buddhism Library|website=www.nichirenlibrary.org|access-date=30 January 2018|archive-date=6 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106045048/http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/A/109|url-status=live}}</ref>  In the prior stage of his career, between 1261 and 1273, Nichiren endured and overcame numerous trials that were directed at him personally including assassination attempts, an attempted execution, and two exiles, thereby "bodily reading the Lotus Sutra" (''shikidoku'' 色読).  In so doing, according to him, he validated the 13th ("Fortitude") chapter of the Lotus Sutra in which a host of bodhisattvas promise to face numerous trials that follow in the wake of upholding and spreading the sutra in the evil age following the death of the Buddha: slander and abuse; attack by swords and staves; enmity from kings, ministers, and respected monks; and repeated banishment.<ref name=Stone2014 />{{rp|154}}

On two occasions, however, the persecution was aimed at his followers.  First, in 1271, in conjunction with the arrest and attempted execution of Nichiren and his subsequent exile to Sado, many of his disciples were arrested, banished, or had lands confiscated by the government.  At that time, Nichiren stated, most recanted their faith in order to escape the government's actions.  In contrast, during the Atsuhara episode twenty lay peasant-farmer followers were arrested on questionable charges and tortured; three were ultimately executed.  This time none recanted their faith.<ref name=Stone2014 />{{rp|155–156}} Some of his prominent followers in other parts of the country were also being persecuted but maintained their faith as well.<ref name=Christensen2001>{{Cite book |title=Nichiren: leader of Buddhist reformation in Japan|last=Christensen|first=Jack Arden|date=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KsztCdAZo9oC&q=izu|publisher=Jain Publishing Co|isbn=9780875730868|location=Fremont, CA |oclc=43030590|access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref>{{rp|117}}

Although Nichiren was situated in Minobu, far from the scene of the persecution, the [[Fuji, Shizuoka|Fuji district]] of present-day [[Shizuoka Prefecture]], Nichiren held his community together in the face of significant oppression through a sophisticated display of legal and rhetorical responses. He also drew on a wide array of support from the network of leading monks and lay disciples he had raised, some of whom were also experiencing persecution at the hands of the government.<ref name=Stone2014 />{{rp|165, 172}}

Throughout the events he wrote many letters to his disciples in which he gave context to the unfolding events by asserting that severe trials have deep significance. According to Stone, "By standing firm under interrogation, the Atsuhara peasants had proved their faith in Nichiren's eyes, graduating in his estimation from 'ignorant people' to devotees meriting equally with himself the name of 'practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.'"<ref name=Stone2014 />{{rp|166, 168–169}}  During this time Nichiren inscribed 114 mandalas that are extant today, 49 of which have been identified as being inscribed for individual lay followers and which may have served to deepen the bond between teacher and disciple.  In addition, a few very large mandalas were inscribed, apparently intended for use at gathering places, suggesting the existence of some type of [[conventicle]] structure.<ref name=Stone1999c>{{Cite journal|last=Stone|first=Jacueline I.|title=Biographical Studies on Nichiren|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~jstone/Articles%20on%20the%20Lotus%20Sutra%20Tendai%20and%20Nichiren%20Buddhism/Biographical%20Studies%20of%20Nichiren%20(1999).pdf|journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies|volume=26/3–4|access-date=7 February 2018|archive-date=28 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328140344/http://www.princeton.edu/~jstone/Articles%20on%20the%20Lotus%20Sutra%20Tendai%20and%20Nichiren%20Buddhism/Biographical%20Studies%20of%20Nichiren%20(1999).pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|446}}

The Atsuhara Affair also gave Nichiren the opportunity to better define what was to become Nichiren Buddhism. He stressed that meeting great trials was a part of the practice of the Lotus Sutra; the great persecutions of Atsuhara were not results of karmic retribution but were the historical unfolding of the Buddhist Dharma.  The vague "single good of the true vehicle" which he advocated in the ''Risshō ankoku ron'' now took final form as chanting the Lotus Sutra's ''daimoku'' or title which he described as the heart of the "origin teaching" (''honmon'' 本門) of the Lotus Sutra.  This, he now claimed, lay hidden in the depths of the 16th ("The Life Span of the Tathāgata") chapter, never before being revealed, but intended by the Buddha solely for the beginning of the Final Dharma Age.<ref name=Stone2014 />{{rp|175–176, 186}}