Rikkyo Kaishue

This puja is held to commemorate the day Nichiren Shonin declared the establishment of Rikkyo and the founding of the sect.

This is the holy day on which Nichiren Shonin, after completing his studies in Gyeonggi, proclaimed the propagation of the Lotus Sutra on April 28, 1253, at Seichoji Temple in his birthplace of Kominato, Chiba Prefecture.
This was the day when Nichiren Shonin, at the age of 32, chanted the Buddhist chanting of the Buddhist sutra to the rising sun from the Pacific Ocean at a place called “Asahi-ga-mori” on Mt. Kiyosumi in what is now Chiba Prefecture, and proclaimed his intention to spread the Lotus Sutra.

On this day, the supreme teaching of the Buddha, which he preached for the sake of future generations, finally began to take shape.
On April 28, Kencho 5, Nichiren Shonin stood on the top of Mt. Kiyosumi, chanted the Buddhist chant to the rising sun from the Pacific Ocean, and proclaimed the establishment of Rikkyo and the establishment of the Buddhist sect. He was aware that he was an ambassador of the Bodhisattva Shogyo, and that he was standing in order to realize the Buddha’s long-cherished wish to transform this present world into a peaceful Buddhist land.

Just as the sun and the moon illuminate the world, Nichiren Shonin founded the Rikkyo Kyokeikyo with the great vow to make human society a bright, peaceful, and tranquil society with the light of the Gohonbutsu, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. He decided to embrace the very heart of the original Buddha of the Lotus Sutra in the title of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and to devote his life to the mission of propagating the Lotus Sutra.

It is said that when he named himself Nichiren after Rikkyo Kaishu, he was expressing his vow to become one with the Lotus Sutra and to embody its sole essence.