Daisho no Kairitsu wa seken owaku no ho (or, as it is to be found in a shorter recension, Ritsu Kokuzoku). "The Vinaya sects, whether of the Small Vehicle (i.e. connected with the Kaidan at Nara), or of the Great Vehicle (i.e. those connected with the Kaidan at Hieizan), are brigands that disturb the peace of the country." We have seen how ambitious priests, in the Nara period, interfered with the Imperial succession in the case, e.g., of the Empress Shotoku, and the Emperor Junnin, and how, after Kwammu had moved his capital to Kyoto, to be free from sacerdotal meddling, the Tendai priesthood had still managed to become the allies of the Fujiwara in their manipulation of Emperors to suit their own policy. We have also seen how the Kaidan question, which was mainly one of discipline, and which, therefore, deeply concerned the Ritsu sects, had caused a schism between Hieizan and Nara, and, later, a schism and civil war between Hieizan and her daughter temple of Miidera. When we think of the Fighting Temples, with their train-bands and men-at-arms, we can see some reason for Nichiren's denunciation of the brigand sects that "throw the world into confusion."

Shingon he described as bokoku, "traitors to their country," probably with reference to their adoption of a lord other than S'akyamuni, the rightful lord in spiritual matters in Japan, and their constant reference to India as the seat of authority in matters of religion. His language as to Vairoc'ana, or Dainichi, was more contemptuous even than that which he had used as to Amida.

[paragraph continues] He maintained that for Vairoc'ana's existence there was no evidence at all that could be brought forward, as in the case of S'akyamuni; that the story of the finding of the Shingon books by Nagarjuna, in the Iron Tower, in South India, was a pure fabrication; and that Kobo Daishi was the "prize liar of Japan" (Nihon no dai mogo).

As for the images of Amida, Kwannon, and the rest; he was charged with recommending that they should be cast into the fire or the sea. They had, in his judgment; wrought enough mischief in Japan.

Nichiren first enunciated these views in a sermon preached in the neighbourhood of his native village; which he visited again at the end of his period of study; in 1254. He then took up his abode near Kamakura; where he built a little hermitage for himself in the hamlet of Nagoye; for there was no temple in the capital of the Hojo Regents which would receive him as an inmate.