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The Third Day of the New Year
I received
the sixty steamed rice cakes, one container of refined sake,
fifty yams, twenty koji oranges1
and one string of dried persimmons that you so kindly sent.
I placed these various articles before the Lotus Sutra and
presented them as offerings to the sutra on the third day
of spring!2
Just
as flowers open up and bear fruit, just as the moon appears
and invariably grows full, just as a lamp becomes brighter
when oil is added, and just as plants and trees flourish with
rain, so will human beings never fail to prosper when they
make good causes.
Moreover,
the sincerity you showed in celebrating the third day of the
new year exceeds even the sincerity you showed in commemorating
the first day. The steamed rice cakes are like the full moon.
I will write of other matters later.
Nichiren
The
eleventh day of the first month in the third year of Koan
(1280), Cyclical sign kanoe-tatsu
To
Lord Ueno
Footnotes:
- Kjji orange: A kind
of mandarin orange that is resistant to cold and that has
a smooth, thin, easy-to-remove peel.
- According to the
old Japanese calendar, spring begins with the first lunar
month; that is, on New Year's Day, which fell somewhere
between January 21 and February 19 by the Western calendar.
Major Writings
of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 7.
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