Studying the Gosho, Mr. Yoshikawa
focused on several passages — of which there are more than 200 — in which
Nichiren Daishonin emphasizes the value of chanting daimoku.
The Daishonin writes, "If you dedicate
yourself to chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, you attain Buddhahood as a common
mortal" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 872). He also writes, "You should always
chant the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 12).
"For the first time I realized that what I had been told at the head temple about chanting daimoku was totally wrong, so I began to chant daimoku assiduously again, this time for one hour a day."
To chant undisturbed and to escape the suspicious eyes of his classmates, Mr. Yoshikawa would slip in through the back door of the Gohonzon room of the Mutsubo temple on the head temple grounds. When he was occasionally caught on his way to the Gohonzon room, he was quizzed about what he was doing.
"It's almost unbelievable that a priest would be asked why he is entering a Gohonzon room," he said. In other words, the concept of entering a Gohonzon room to pray to the Gohonzon was almost unheard of at the head temple.
His colleagues thought him strange, branding him with the nickname "Daimoku Yoshikawa." Although such a name would be a compliment in the Soka Gakkai, within Nichiren Shoshu, it was intended as a source of shame. "When I was a senior high school student, I seriously wondered, 'Am I strange because I love to chant? Or are all the other priests strange who do not chant daimoku?'"
"Agonized, I prayed to the Gohozon:
'Gohonzon, let me walk along a correct path to enlightenment. If I am wrong,
Gohonzon, please take my life.' I had to be this serious in offering my
prayers. I can clearly say now that the faith of the priests at the head
temple was distorted to the extent that they did not chant daimoku."
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