Omosu Seminary
Differentiating the One from the Five

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In the second month of 1298 (the sixth year of the Einin Period), Nikko Shonin was invited by the lord of Omosu, a samurai named Ishikawa Sanesaburo Yoshitada, to move to Omosu, which is now the Kitayama area of Fujinomiya in Shizuoka Prefecture. Lord Omosu’s invitation allowed Nikko Shonin to found Omosu Seminary, where he lived for the next 35 years, ensuring that the Daishonin’s teachings would be left in capable hands. During his tenure, Nikko Shonin appointed a priest named Jakusen-bo Nitcho, a reformed former disciple of Niko, to serve as the first head of studies at the seminary. Due to his early death, however, Nikko Shonin later appointed Sanmi Nichijun his successor.

For many years, Nikko Shonin lectured disciples commuting from Taisekiji on the Daishonin’s major writings, including the Rissho ankoku-ron, “The Opening of the Eyes,” “The Orally Transmitted Teachings” and “Why Buddhist Deities Ascend into the Heavens” (“Kami tenjo kanmon”). He also discoursed on the factors that necessitated his departure from Minobu, the rationale for the establishment of Honmonji Temple and other vital issues. He took special care to clarify the differences in understanding between the other five senior disciples and himself, which are recorded in such works as “Things to Know about the History of the Fuji School” (“Fuji isseki monto zonji no koto”) and “On Refuting the Five” (“Gonin shoha-sho”). Nikko Shonin points out that the Daishonin’s other five senior disciples betrayed their master by referring to themselves as priests of the Tendai School, and by condoning worship at Shinto shrines and allowing worship before statues of Shakyamuni Buddha. In contrast, Nikko Shonin insisted on his lineage from Nichiren Daishonin, and in view of his knowledge on the true reasons why Buddhist deities ascend into the heavens, he espoused the correct doctrine of reverence for the supreme mandala inscribed by the Daishonin as the object of worship.

Nikko Shonin’s exposé on the heresy of the other five elders in defense of his own orthodoxy is referred to as “Differentiating the One from the Five.”

 Nikko Shonin
Constant Service and Propagation of the True Law
Two Transfer Documents: The Great Master of Propagation of the Essential Teaching
Departure from Minobu
The Establishment of Taisekiji
Omosu Seminary: Differentiating the One from the Five
Tale of the Pear Leaves
Differentiating the One from the Five
Other Facts and Disciples
The Twenty-six Admonitions of Nikko

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