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Shōshinkai

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Shōshinkai ( 正信会 ) , full name Nichiren-Shōshū-Shōshinkai ( 日蓮正宗正信会 ) , is a Japanese Nichiren Buddhist dissenting group formed in July 1980 by approximately 200 Nichiren Shōshū priests who were mostly the disciples of the former High Priest Nittatsu Hosoi , along with their lay followers who were critical of the Soka Gakkai .

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27-461: The association is known for rejection of the legitimacy of successorship of 67th High Priest Nikken Abe . Nikken Abe expelled the association in 1980, citing further defiance while demoting those who have returned to Nichiren Shoshu to a loss of priestly capacities and loss of senior roles as probationary punishment. Most of these priests have either aged and deceased, reverting their temple property with new younger Nichiren Shoshu priests taking over

54-547: A chance to cooperate with him. But the priests (who were mainly the disciples of the former High Priest) who later formed the Shōshinkai disagreed, claiming Sōka Gakkai had only taken its deviations underground. The same group of dissenting priests continued their campaign of criticism and formed Shōshinkai to organize their efforts into a movement. Despite repeated admonitions from the new High Priest Nikken and Nichiren Shōshū leadership to cease and desist, Shōshinkai went ahead with

81-418: A document to Nikken casting doubt on the legitimacy of his office. They then filed suit with a local government court on 21 January 1981 seeking to annul Nikken's appointment on the grounds that he had never been named successor by Nittatsu. Nikken demanded that the Shōshinkai priests retract their accusations or face excommunication. Some two hundred priests refused. Upon the publicized notice of excommunication,

108-497: A large top, and almost entirely covers the torso. In representations of the Buddha, the bottom of the antarvāsa usually protrudes, and appears in the rough shape of a triangle. This garment is essentially a skirt, which was common enough as ancient menswear. When needed, its height could be adjusted so it did not hang as low as the ankles. A robe covering the upper body. It comes over the undergarment, or antarvāsa. In representations of

135-410: A major rally on 24 August 1980. Due to this dissension, Nikken and the senior Nichiren Shōshū leadership punished a number of priests for their involvement, including five excommunications. The Shōshinkai priests involved with the excommunication responded that such act was ineffective because the punishment was done by an illegitimate High Priest. On 13 December 1980, the priests of the Shōshinkai sent

162-731: A number of them filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, but the local court ruled that all religious claims, including the petition for annulment of Nikken's status were internal Nichiren Shoshu matters to be resolved within the sect itself. The Shōshinkai continued its anti-Sōka Gakkai and anti-High Priest Nikken activities, even accepting new acolytes into the priesthood and conferring initiation ceremonies for new believers. Most Shōshinkai priests continued living within their Nichiren Shōshū temples, which they were technically allowed to do until their death. The Head Temple Taisekiji has declared that these temple properties have since reverted to Nichiren Shōshū as their occupants have died or been ordered by

189-548: A split became imminent, and, at a special leaders meeting held at Nichiren Shōshū Head Temple Taiseki-ji on 7 November 1978, termed the Tozan of Apology , the senior leadership of Sōka Gakkai apologized to the priesthood and promised to correct the incompatibilities and never deviate from Nichiren Shōshū doctrine again. This apology was later printed in both the Seikyo Shimbun SGI magazine (November edition) as well as

216-659: A very similar passage corroborating this information, but the colors for the Sarvāstivāda and Dharmaguptaka sects are reversed. In traditions of Tibetan Buddhism , which follow the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, red robes are regarded as characteristic of the Mūlasarvāstivādins. According to Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje , the robes of fully ordained Mahāsāṃghika monastics were to be sewn out of more than seven but no more than twenty-three sections. The symbols sewn on

243-471: Is a primus inter pares ), but it is traditional to refer to it only to Jesus Christ as the only high priest of Christianity. Throughout the episcopal body, except in the Anglican and Lutheran communions, bishops may also be referred to as high priests, since they share in or are considered earthly instruments of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. High priest is an office of the priesthood within

270-712: The Melchizedek priesthood in most denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement . A high priest in Mandaeism is known as a ganzibra . The head of all of the high priests within a Mandaean community is known as a rishama . The phrase is also often used to describe someone who is deemed to be an innovator or leader in a field of achievement. For example, an 1893 publication describes ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes as having been "the high-priest of comedy". Kasaya (clothing) Kāṣāya are

297-400: The Buddha, the uttarāsaṅga rarely appears as the uppermost garment, since it is often covered by the outer robe, or saṃghāti. Or can be worn with a jacket or cardigan. The saṃghāti is a double layers robe of Bhikkhus or Bhikkhunis used as an outer cloak for various occasions. It comes over the upper robe ( uttarāsaṅga ), and the undergarment ( antarvāsa ). In representations of the Buddha,

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324-543: The Chinese monks typically wore red. The Japanese term kesa came from the Chinese transliteration of the term kāṣāya. Like in China, the kesa is a rectangular garment which is worn over the left shoulder. The Japanese kesa are also made of patchwork (割截衣; kassetsue) which can be composed of five, seven, nine, or more panels of fabric sewed together. The kesa is worn over a Chinese-style long robe, called jikitotsu (直裰) which

351-792: The Head Temple Taisekiji take on the role of the temple property administration. Accordingly, several Shōshinkai priests from the 1980s have also gone to other varying Nichiren sects as they age, among them in particular is the Nichiren Shū sect at Kuon-ji in Yamanashi Prefecture . There, they haven also opened a research center called Kofu Danjo (興風談所) that has spawned books that have attracted attention from other Nichiren Buddhist organizations for their scholarly content. High Priest The term " high priest " usually refers either to an individual who holds

378-1041: The Hebrews refers to Jesus as high priest. In Christianity , a high priest could sometimes be compared to the Pope in the Catholic Church , to a patriarch in the Oriental Orthodox Churches , the Church of the East and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is a primus inter pares ) or to a primate in the Anglican Communion (the Archbishop of Canterbury

405-561: The administration to the Head Temple Taisekiji while others have accordingly joined other Nichiren sects until their retirement. During the 1970s, the Sōka Gakkai undertook a number of activities and propagated several notions that many in the Nichiren Shōshū priesthood and laity saw as deviations from traditional Nichiren Shōshū doctrine . Ultimately, the sentiment within the priesthood and traditional lay organizations grew so strong that

432-460: The body in a specific manner. The three main pieces of cloth are the antarvāsa , the uttarāsaṅga , and the saṃghāti . Together they form the "triple robe," or ticīvara . The ticīvara is described more fully in the Theravāda Vinaya (Vin 1:94 289). The antarvāsa is the inner robe covering the lower body. It is the undergarment that flows underneath the other layers of clothing. It has

459-408: The courts to vacate. While many have deceased or abandoned their priesthood, only a few Shōshinkai priests have reverted to Nichiren Shōshū, and even so they were deprived of their kesa and Koromo Robe and had to start as complete beginners ( kozo ) as part of their punishment. Accordingly, their temples remained under Nichiren Shoshu as the priests have aged and new younger priests affiliated with

486-474: The different schools that they belonged to, and their robes ranged widely from red and ochre, to blue and black. Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which describes the color of monastic robes used in five major Indian Buddhist sects, called Da Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi (Ch. 大比丘三千威儀). Another text translated at a later date, the Śāriputraparipṛcchā , contains

513-517: The early period of Chinese Buddhism , the most common color was red. Later, the color of the robes came to serve as a way to distinguish monastics, just as they did in India. However, the colors of a Chinese Buddhist monastic's robes often corresponded to their geographical region rather than to any specific schools. By the maturation of Chinese Buddhism, only the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage

540-768: The manuscript of the Dai-Nichiren December 1978 publication. On 24 April 1979, Sōka Gakkai's President Daisaku Ikeda stepped down to take responsibility for the incident. In addition, at the 40th General Meeting of the Sōka Gakkai on 3 May 1979, the 66th High Priest Nittatsu Hosoi declared his decision to accept the organization's apology and forgive the matter on the explicit condition that Sōka Gakkai observe its solemn promise to uphold Nichiren Shōshū doctrine. Nittatsu also instructed his own priests to stop open criticism of Sōka Gakkai and to cease encouraging Sōka Gakkai members to affiliate themselves directly with

567-755: The office of ruler - priest , or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. In ancient Egypt , a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many gods revered by the Egyptians. The High Priest of Israel served in the Tabernacle , then in the Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple in Jerusalem . The Samaritan High Priest is the high priest of the Samaritans . The Epistle to

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594-592: The robes of fully ordained Buddhist monks and nuns , named after a brown or saffron dye. In Sanskrit and Pali, these robes are also given the more general term cīvara , which references the robes without regard to color. Buddhist kāṣāya are said to have originated in ancient India as a set of robes for monks who followed the teachings of Gautama Buddha . A notable variant has a pattern reminiscent of an Asian rice field. Original kāṣāya were constructed of discarded fabric . These were stitched together to form three rectangular pieces of cloth, which were then fitted over

621-487: The robes were the endless knot (Skt. śrīvatsa ) and the conch (Skt. śaṅkha ), two of the aṣṭamaṅgala , auspicious symbols in Buddhism. In Chinese Buddhism , the term jiasha ( Chinese : 袈裟 ; pinyin : jiāshā ) was borrowed from the term kāṣāya. In China, the jiasha refers to a one-piece, patchworked rectangular fabric which is worn over a long one-piece, cross-collar robe known as zhiduo . During

648-550: The saṃghāti is usually the most visible garment, with the undergarment or uttarāsaṅga protruding at the bottom. It is quite similar in shape to the Greek himation , and its shape and folds have been treated in Greek style in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra . Other items that may have been worn with the triple robe were: In India, variations of the kāṣāya robe distinguished different types of monastics. These represented

675-423: The temples, which had previously exacerbated the contested issue. On 22 July 1979, Nittatsu died of chronic heart disease without directly naming his successor. Shinno Abe, at that time a young priest, insisted that he was secretly given permission to be the next High Priest by Nittatsu before he had died and succeeded him as the 67th High Priest, Nikken Abe . He changed his predecessor's policy and gave Sōka Gakkai

702-467: Was also developed in China, and had a belt or sash tied at the waist. Zen Buddhist monks wear a form of formal dress which is composed of two kimono, covered by the jikitotsu; and the kesa is finally worn on top of the jikitotsu. Japanese buddhism kesa (袈裟) used to be worn covering the entire body beneath the head, including both shoulders, but now they are worn with the right shoulder exposed, except in special cases ( 偏袒右肩 ; Hendan-uken ). This

729-520: Was still in use, and therefore the color of robes served no useful purpose as a designation for sects, the way that it had in India. During the Tang dynasty , Chinese Buddhist monastics typically wore grayish-black robes, and were even colloquially referred to as Ziyi ( 緇 衣 ), "those of the black robes." However, the Song dynasty monk Zanning (919–1001 CE) writes that during the earlier Han - Wei period,

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