On a certain day he was taken out to a village on the strand of the bay beyond Kamakura, and in front of the lovely island of Enoshima. This village is called Koshigoye. At this time Nichiren was forty-three years old. Kneeling down upon the strand, the saintly bonze calmly uttered his prayers.
The swordsman lifted his blade, and, with all his might, made the downward stroke. Suddenly a flood of blinding light burst from the sky, and smote upon the executioner and the official inspector deputed to witness the severed head. The sword blade was broken in pieces, while the holy man was unharmed. Through the clemency of Hojo Tokimune, Nichiren was pardoned and sent to Sado Island. He was afterward released by his benefactor in a general amnesty.
Nichiren founded his sect at Kioto, and it greatly flourished under the care of his disciple, his reverence Nichizo. After a busy and holy life, the great saint died at Ikegami, a little to northwest of the Kawasaki railroad station, between Yokohama and Tokio, where the scream of the locomotive and the rumble of the railway car are but faintly heard in its solemn shades.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
