Besides
the historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all,
admits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the
founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in
Korea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word
which means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen
is the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but
disappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long,
covered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified
under the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is
identified with the Hindoo deity Siva.
Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this
name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a
wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his
right hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes
the male and female principles in the physical world, and the
intelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking
figure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the
ancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as
though the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified
and worshipped.
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