Nikken Abe

Abe Nikken 阿部日顕
Personal
Born	(1922-12-19)19 December 1922 Sumida, Tokyo, Japan
Died	20 September 2019(2019-09-20) (aged 96) Setagaya, Japan
Religion	Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism
Spouse	Masako Abe
Children	Shinsho Abe
Alma mater	Rissho University
Other names	"Shinno", "Etsuyo"
Senior posting
Based in	Taisekiji, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Period in office	15 April 1978 – 15 December 2005
Predecessor	Nittatsu Hosoi
Successor	Nichinyo Hayase
Ordination	28 August 1928
Previous post	Head of the Nichiren Shoshu doctrinal department (Kyōgaku-bu) 67th High Priest of Nichiren Shōshū

Nikken Abe (阿部日顕, Abe Nikken; also known as Nikken Shonin; 19 December 1922 – 20 September 2019) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who served as the 67th High Priest of Nichiren Shōshū and chief priest of Taiseki-ji head Temple in Fujinomiya, Japan.

Before becoming High Priest, he served as the head of the doctrinal department of Nichiren Shoshu and as such was involved in the compilation of many of the school's publications. As High Priest, Abe affirmed the permanent expulsion of the Soka Gakkai on 28 November 1991.

He retired as High Priest on 15 December 2005 and was succeeded by Hayase Nichinyo Shonin. Abe died on 20 September 2019 in his private residence in Nakamachi Street, in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, aged 96.

Early life

Born Nobuo (信夫), Abe was the first son of Hōun Abe, then the chief priest of Jōzen-ji in Sumida, Tokyo, and later 60th Nichiren Shoshu High Priest Nichikai. His mother, Myoshuni, was a female priest. He entered the priesthood in 1928 by tonsure, taking the Buddhist name Shinno (信雄).

He graduated from Rissho University in 1943, training as a priest. After his return from duty with the Japanese Imperial Navy, he served as chief priest of three temples :

1. Hongyōji (Sumida ward, Tokyo, 1947)
2. Heianji (Kyoto, 1963) where his mother was a resident priest
3. Jōsenji (Sumida ward, Tokyo)

He was appointed head of the school's Kyōgakubu (office of doctrinal orthodoxy, often rendered Taisekiji Study Department) in 1961. In this position, he was one of the two Nichiren Shoshu priests who traveled overseas to conduct the first initiation rites (Gojukai) for new believers outside Japan in 1961, for which the 66th high priest gave him the name "Etsuyo" (越洋: "he who crosses the seas"). Abe was named Nichiren Shoshu Sōkan (the school's second-highest ranking priest) in early 1979.

As High Priest

On 22 July 1979, Abe took over as high priest, shortly after the death of the 66th High Priest Nittatsu Hosoi. At that time, he changed his name three times: he initially changed his name to Nichi-gō (the name beginning with Nichi that all priests have but use publicly after certain seniority) from Nichiji (日慈) to finally Nikken (日顕) in deference to a more senior priest who was the father of the current high priest, Nichinyo.

A rendered image of the Dai Gohonzon mandala transcribed by Nikken Abe.

On 4 December 2005, Abe announced his intention to step down as high priest before the end of the year. He performed the ceremony of transferral of the Heritage of the Law on 12 December 2005, in which he appointed Nichinyo Hayase (1935—) his successor. He officially retired on 15 December 2005, four days before his 83rd birthday, after 26 years as high priest. Sixty-eighth High Priest Nichinyo Shōnin ascended to the high priest's seat at a ceremony on 16 December 2005. Abe had a wife, Masako Abe, and a son born in 1944, Shinsho Abe.

Abe's tenure as high priest was marked by a mixture of progress and controversy.

He officiated several milestone celebrations, including:

• 1981 —The 700th anniversary of Nichiren's death.
• 1982 — The 650th anniversaries of the passing of Taiseki-ji's founder Nikkō and his successor Nichimoku
• 1990 — The 700th anniversary of Taiseki-ji's founding
• 2004 — The 750th anniversary of Nichiren's proclamation of his teachings

In addition, Abe oversaw the compilation and publication of several important works, including compilations of previous high priests' letters, treatises, and sermons, and official biographies of Nichiren and his successors.

• 1981 — Nichiren Daishōnin Shōden
• 1982 — Nikkō Shōnin, Nichimoku Shōnin Shōden
• 1999 — Revision of 1978 Nichiren Shōshū Yōgi (a comprehensive overview of Nichiren Shoshu doctrine)
• 1994 — Heisei Shimpen Nichiren Daishōnin Gosho, a new compilation of Nichiren Daishonin's Gosho based on thorough historical and documentary surveys.

Abe also initiated and oversaw the publication of the following Taiseki-ji publications:

• The annotated edition of 26th High Priest Nichikan's doctrinally definitive work Rokkanshō ("The six volume writings" in 1996)
• A revised edition of the Lotus Sutra with its prologue and epilogue sutras (Shimpen Myōhōrengekyō Narabini Kaiketsu in 1998)
• The compilation of Nichikan's Gosho Mondan in 2000
• Nichikan's exegesis on fourteen of Nichiren's most important writings (Nichikan Shōnin Gosho Mondan, 2001)
• The publication of Juryōhon Seppō in 2003, a compilation of sermons he delivered over a span of 23 years on the "Life Span of the Thus Come One" (Juryō) chapter of the Lotus Sutra.

In December 1980, Abe's succession to the position of high priest was challenged by a group of Nichiren Shoshu priests belonging to the Shoshinkai after he excommunicated five of them for disobeying repeated admonitions to cancel a massive anti-Soka Gakkai rally (August 1980) and to stop attacking the Soka Gakkai, a lay organization formerly chartered by Nichiren Shoshu. Ultimately, Abe excommunicated over 200 Nichiren Shoshu priests who had aligned themselves with Shoshinkai, which balked at Abe's policy of reconciliation with the Soka Gakkai after a conflict with the group that had surfaced in the early 1970s and lasted through the end of the decade.

Abe worked to restore the Nichiren Shoshu faith to what he saw as an orthodoxy that he felt had been lost during the school's association with Soka Gakkai. These reforms began with changing back the start of Ushitora Gongyo, a prayer service for the worldwide propagation of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, from 12:00 midnight to its traditional time starting at 2:30 am so the service would span the eponymous "hour of the ox (ushi) and tiger (tora)".

Expulsion of the Soka Gakkai

Abe excommunicated Soka Gakkai and its senior leaders in November 1991. He gave several reasons such as : doctrinal deviations, the Soka Gakkai's usurpation of rites such as the Higan-e equinox ceremonies and funerals without Nichiren Shoshu priests officiating, its defiant staging of Ode to Joy concerts that were incongruent with Nichiren Shoshu doctrine, a deleterious reputation after political and financial scandals, and a speech (which became public when a recording was leaked) by then Soka Gakkai President Daisaku Ikeda.

Since its exclusion, the Soka Gakkai has adopted an accusation leveled by the Shoshinkai that Abe is a pretender to the high priest's position, and that it was part of a personal vendetta against Daisaku Ikeda.

After the exclusion, Abe left his personal mark on the grounds of Nichiren Shoshu Head Temple Taiseki-ji. He had numerous old lodging temples rebuilt and parts of the compound re-landscaped. In conjunction with some of the anniversary celebrations mentioned above, he had a bare-concrete building removed and a plaza and garden built in its place, as well as several quickly-built concrete lodgings replaced with two modern structures. He also had demolished several buildings donated by the Soka Gakkai, replacing them with buildings more in keeping with the atmosphere of a traditional Japanese Buddhist temple.

Later years

Abe founded numerous temples overseas (the last temple he founded was the Kaimyo-in Temple in Singapore in December 2005) and minor propagation centers in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America as well as Europe and North America. He is considered as one of the few high priests in Nichiren Shoshu's history, after Nikko Shonin (1246-1333), to reach 80 years of age while actively serving in the position.

Abe died in his private residence in Nakamachi district of Setagaya ward in Tokyo on 20 September 2019, aged 96. His body was briefly exhibited in the Kyakuden for international believers and thereafter his cremated remains are interred in the Buddhist stupa no. 67 at the burial cemetery grounds of Taiseki-ji.

Sources

• Japanese Wikipedia article on Shōshinkai
• Shoshū Hashaku Guide (Jp: 諸宗破折ガイド: Guide to refuting [erroneous teachings of] other schools). Taiseki-ji, 2003 (no ISBN)
• Nichiren Shoshu Fuji Nempyō (Jp: 日蓮正宗 富士年表: Chronology of the history of the Fuji Schools). Fuji Gakurin, 1990. (No ISBN)