"Nichiren wrote the Rissho Ankoku Ron to teach his disciples the value of dialogue" -- SGI leader

"The first essays that Nichiren wrote were doctrinal expositions intended to 

explain the Dharma to a trained audience of priests.  But the “Rissho 
Ankoku Ron” represents the type of writing at which Nichiren excelled and 
for which he is famous: the explication of doctrine for an individual, with 
anecdote, analogy, and detail chosen to appeal to that one person.  The 
essay consists of a series of questions and answers comprising a dialogue 
between a Buddhist scholar and his visitor.  During the conversation the 
scholar leads his quest to a correct understanding of the relationship 
between the establishment of the true Buddha Dharma (“rissho”) and the 
peace of the country (“ankoku”) 

The dialectic form had often been used for essays in China and earlier 
Japanese Buddhist doctrinal expositions (cf. Takagi, “Nichiren:sono kodo to 
shiso” p.73) and Nichiren himself had used the style in some earlier 
compositions, but never with such skill and effect.  The dramatic 
presentation suits Nichiren’s spirit, and the lively, conversational form 
allows for insertion of other doctrines which may be effectively refuted. 

The position that Nichiren urged was one of repression.  The Amidists, 
whose faith was single out by Nichiren for repression as “heretical, evil 
teaching” and “slander of true Buddhism” soon learned of the contents of 
the Rissho Ankoko Ron, which demanded that the Amidist’s faith be outlawed. 
Six weeks after Nichiren submitted the Rissho Ankoku Ron, his house on the 
outskirts of Kamakura was burned to the ground.  A few months later, 
Nichiren was arrested and,  with no trial,  was exiled to Izu by order of 
Hojo Shigetori, an Amidist. 

In the Rissho Ankoku Ron Nichiren had predicted a foreign invasion.  In 
1268, Kublai Khan sent his first letter threatening Japan with invasion by 
the Mongol Empire (which had already taken control of China and Korea). 
Overnight, Nichiren’s reputation as a prophet grew.  So did the  opposition 
to his teachings.  In 1271, Nichiren and his followers were accused of ten 
misdeeds, quoted from the Rissho Ankoku Ron.   Taken before Taira 
Yoritsuna, (head of the retainer’s bureau and chief administrator for the 
Hojo household)  Nichiren announced:

“The Kencho-ji, Jufuku-ji, Gokuraku-ji, Daibutsu, Choraku-ji--all the 
Nembutsu and Zen temples---should be burned to the ground and their priests 
beheaded at Yuigahama, or Japan will be destroyed.” 

Nichiren was found guilty of sedition and sentenced to exile on Sado.  In 
the second month of the following year, another prediction made in the 
Rissho Ankoku Ron proved accurate, further restoring confidence in 
Nichiren’s fame as a prophet. Hojo Tokisuke plotted a rebellion against his 
younger brother, Hojo Tokimune.....fulfilling the prophecy of internal 
rebellion and internecine fighting that Nichiren had found in the sutras. 

The Rissho Ankoku Ron proved to be the most inflammatory and far reaching 
of all of Nichiren’s writings.  Clearly,  this work was the touchstone that 
sparked a long series of persecutions in Nichiren’s life. 

Years later, while on his deathbed at Ikegami, Nichiren lectured 
extensively on the Rissho Ankoku Ron to his followers who had gathered 
there from September to October 13th of 1282, when, at around 8 AM, 
Nichiren finally died at the age of sixty. He was cremated and his remains 
were taken to Minobu. 

Nichiren did not write it to teach his disciples the value of “dialogue”, 
as the above history surrounding the Rissho Ankoku Ron clearly 
demonstrates." -- Stephanie Maltz