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Taisekiji Transfer Documents 
by Rev. Tetsujo Kubota 

Taisekiji claims that in the ninth month of the fifth year of Koan (1282) at 
Minobu and on the thirteenth day of of the tenth month at Ikegami Nikko 
received succession documents from the Great Saint. Taisekiji boasts to world 
calling these the "Two Successions" (Nika sojo). But these two are forgeries 
and on the contrary hurt the reputation of their own patriarch Nikko. We shall 
try to give the reasons below: 

(1) If Nikko had been give the approval by the Great Saint with so 
much as these "Two Successions", he would have naturally performed the 
office of Chief Officiant at the time of Nichiren Shonin's funeral. 

However, in reality the forward echelon had Nichiro and the rear echelon 
Nissho; Nikko was on the left side of the rear echelon. 

(2) If the "Two Successions" were true, there would have been no 
necessity for choosing the Six Senior Monks and so on and if he had chosen them 
he would have made Nikko first. The Six Senior Monks were said to be not in order
but they are listed in order of having become the disciples. 

(3) In "Two Successions" it says, "if the Ruler of the Country 
establishes this Dharma (Truth), erect at Mount Fuji the Precept Platform of 
the Temple of the Original Doctrine (Hommonji no Kaidan). 

However, according to the "Matters that the Whole Fuji Following Is to Know" 
(Fuji isseki monto Zonchi no koto), a credible record of Nikko, Nikko says, 

"The previous teacher did not set which province and which place. But the 
general rule of the Buddha Dharma is to choose the very best place to erect the 
temple. And that being so, Mount Fuji in Suruga is the most famous mountain in 
Japan. Therefore, they should erect it here." 

Thus the "former teacher" Nichiren did not fix any place where they should 
build the Precept Platform of the Temple of the Original Doctrine (Hommonji no
Kaidan). From this fact alone, the "Two Successions" are forgeries. 

(4) As to Nikko's departure from Minobu, had the Two Successions 

been genuine, he would have certainly rejoiced to go to Fuji. However, in 
reality, as recorded, he felt regret. 

For the above reasons the "two Successions" are bare-faced 
forgeries. Even in the Nikko Lineage thoughtful people deny the "Two 
Successions". 

Next, let us try to consider the division of Nichiren's mementos. In contrast 
to Nissho, who received "the Annotated Hokekyo" and Nichiro who received an 
"Object of Worship: one Standing Statue of Shakya", Nikko received only "a 
 Horse (one); saddle; tabi; hat; kosode" and so on. 

We may tell by looking at Nikko's "Reply to Lord Hara" that Nikko himself felt 
dissatisfied by this division of mementos: "in place of the Buddha which 
Daikoku Acharya seized away...." To write that the distribution of mementos 
was "seizing" is not reasonable. 

Now in Nikko's "Reply to Lord Hara" he says, 

"Is not the Doctrine of Nichiren Shonin the doctrine that, though it is 
the Tathagata Shakya who is the Original Teacher Who First Gave Rise to 
the Mind of Enlightenment for the sake of the beings of the Three Worlds, they 
abandon Him and rely on the Buddha Amida, and so become people who commit the 
Five Rebellious Sins and fall to the Unremitting Hell?" and so he reverences 
the Buddha Shakya as the Original Teacher. Or again Nikko states in reverence 
"the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya of Namu Myoho renge kyo who is the 
Fundamental Intention (honkai) for Nichiren Shonin's coming forth in the 
world". 

In the current Taisekiji Branch of the Lineage of Nikko's Disciples (Nichiren Shoshu 
and the Sokagakkai) they assert that Shakya is a "husk Buddha" and Nichiren is the 
Original Buddha, "Shakya is like a husk of a cicada and it is Nichiren who is the Original 
(True) Buddha".  The origin of that assertion  is from a reaction to the fact that in the 
distribution of momentos the image of the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya which 
Nichiren Shonin kept all his life went to Nichiro's Lineage. 

By the way, after the Great Saint's decease, the second and third 
battle lines (generations) in each lineage began to spread the teachings in each 
region at the risk of their very lives, but, by contrast, as the generations 
went on from the third to the fourth generation they followed self-interest and 
asserted that their own lineage had Nichiren Shonin's special teaching and 
precious objects and were the orthodox succession and gradually they came to 
proclaim different doctrines and set up conflicting theories. And so a hundred 
years after Nichiren Shonin's decease it was the Orthodox Teacher Nichiju who 
raised the rallying cry, 

"Go back to Nichiren Daishonin!"