Nichiren 日蓮 (1222–1282), founder of the Nichiren-shū 日蓮宗 and one of the most influential and controversial figures of Kamakura Japanese Buddhism. Born Zennichi-maro 善日麿 in the fishing village of Kominato (Awa province, modern Chiba) to a low-status family — by his own account senda-ra, the lowest caste of fisher-folk. Ordained at Kiyosumi-dera at age 11, trained on Mt. Hiei in Tendai scholasticism in the 1240s, and at Kōya in Shingon in the late 1240s. His doctrinal turn occurred in the 1250s: he became convinced that the Lotus Sūtra 法華經 is the single sufficient and exclusive teaching for the mappō age and that all other Buddhist schools — Pure Land, Zen, Shingon, Vinaya — are deviations to be rejected.
The canonical events of his life are: (1) the first sermon at Kiyosumi-dera on the 28th of the 4th month of Kenchō 5 / 1253, when he declared the Nam-myōhō-renge-kyō daimoku as the central practice; (2) the submission of the Risshō ankoku-ron KR6t0399 to Hōjō Tokiyori on the 16th of the 7th month of Bun’ō 1 / 1260; (3) the Matsuba-ga-yatsu attempted assassination of the 27th of the 8th month of 1260; (4) the Izu exile (1261–1263); (5) the Tatsunokuchi attempted execution of the 12th of the 9th month of Bun’ei 8 / 1271 (when, according to legend, a luminous orb appeared in the sky and the executioner’s sword broke); (6) the Sado exile (1271–1274), during which Nichiren composed his major doctrinal works Kaimoku-shō KR6t0400 and Kanjin honzon-shō KR6t0403; (7) the Minobu retreat (1274–1282); (8) the death at Ikegami on the 13th of the 10th month of Kōan 5 / 1282, age 60.
His writings in the Taishō Pure Land volume (T84) — somewhat ironically given his anti-Pure-Land polemic, included here because they were copied and preserved within the broader Pure Land lineage — comprise KR6t0399–KR6t0409, nine principal works including the Five Major Writings (go-jū-go-shō 五重御書): Risshō ankoku-ron, Kaimoku-shō, Kanjin honzon-shō, Senji-shō, and Hō-on-shō. The DILA authority id is A001250. He was posthumously honored as Risshō Daishi 立正大師 by imperial decree in 1922.