Nichio

• Born: 1565
• Died: 1630

Nichiô was a leader of Nichiren Buddhism in the late 16th to early 17th centuries. He is known as the founder of the Fuju-fuse movement, which emphasized the exclusive attitude of the Nichiren sect, saying one should neither receive anything (fuju) nor give anything (fuse) to adherents of other sects. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi invited leaders of all the major sects to a celebration for his unification of the country, Nichiô refused to attend. When he refused a similar invitation by Tokugawa Ieyasu some years later, he was exiled and the Fuju-fuse movement came to be harshly persecuted; it continues today, however.

References

• William de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol 1, Columbia University Press (2001), 295.