Nichiren was exiled to Sado island, where he spent two years and five months. It has become a principal center for Nichiren’s ideas and beliefs. It has already been reported that priests of the Nichiren sect crossed to Sado and reconstructed the sacred place shortly after Nichiren’s death. The pilgrimage to Sado became popular among ordinary people since Early Modern times, and therefore, it is considered that they are deeply related to the formation of the holy place of Nichiren.
This paper examines the reasons why priests of the Nichiren sect, mainly in the Early Modern period, went to Sado, and the process by which a sacred land dedicated to Nichiren was created on Sado as described in guidebooks of the sacred place.
In medieval Sado, famous for its connection with Nichiren, many hermitages and Hokke-dō halls were built. Among them, Anryū-ji, Konpon-ji, Myōsen-ji and Honkō-ji were maintained and converted into sacred places. Some other sacred places were established by merger and relocation.
Since the biography and folklore of Nichiren was spread among the ordinary people, temples and sacred sites associated with Nichiren in Sado were recognized as such sacred spots. Thus, Nichiren Buddhists began to make pilgrimages to Sado after the time of the imperial restoration at the end of the Edo period.
In addition, because this sacred spot was introduced in the Nichiren Biography published in the Early Modern period, it was maintained as a sacred place.
In the Late Tokugawa Period, a Nichiren Hall was built in a place called Maura, the last port from which Nichiren left Sado as he was returning to Kamakura. Local residents still maintain it.
