Nichiren

By Masahiko Murakami and Ken Tanaka

In 13th-century Japan, disease, famine, violence, and natural disasters plague society. Samurai lords, blinded by power, shirk any responsibility to protect the citizenry. Religious leaders care more about currying favor with the powerful than helping common people find hope and a positive way to deal with their suffering. But one unknown Buddhist monk dares to speak the truth to power: Nichiren remonstrates with the authorities. He insists that all human life is precious and that the government needs to change its ways and become of service to the people. He criticizes the established religions as being merely pawns of the state, who teach ideas that only further the people’s sense of powerlessness. The true purpose of Buddhism, he asserts, is to teach people a way to empower themselves, challenge their destiny, and experience happiness in this life. Based on actual events, this exciting comic touches on major milestones in Nichiren’s life interwoven with basic Buddhist principles. This real-life adventure story will captivate readers as it illustrates the life of one courageous human being who stopped at nothing to bring happiness to the people and peace to the land.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Middleway Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781938252556

Book preview

Reviews for Nichiren

[villemezbrown · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Dull as dirt, this book seeks to extol the Buddhist priest Nichiren but ends up making him look like a bit of a self-righteous jerk. To amp things up, the creators toss in a masked female assassin, a bunch of soldiers and several villains of the mustache-twirling variety. To make the story more relatable to kids, they shoehorn in a couple of young characters that would look more at home in a Dragonball or Pokemon book. To make the book boring, they spend a bunch of time discussing which Buddhist sutra devote worshippers should be chanting. Characters are constantly telling us how wonderful Nichiren is, but the creators really do little to show him doing anything concrete or worthwhile. Instead we get scenes of Nichiren grandstanding in a childish squabble with another priest, telling him basically, "Nyah, nyah, you can't make it rain and should quit being a priest," but doing nothing himself to relieve the suffering of the populace in a time of drought. I'd never heard of Nichiren before reading this book and would be happy to never hear of him again after finishing this book.