The True Purpose of the Sho-Hondo (longer version with references)

I've been researching this for several years now, and I've only just now come to some clarity on everything surrounding the Sho-Hondo. That's because what's involved is utterly unique to Japanese culture, something that has no parallel within US culture. Thus, it's very difficult for someone with no experience in this cultural context to form a framework to develop the model that enables us to understand the hows and whys and everything else.

But I'm going to try. See what you think. We'll start from the beginning, with Nichiren:

Nichiren's goal was to gain control of Japan by becoming its spiritual leader. As such, he would be more powerful than the ruler(s), because the ruler(s) would have to do what Nichiren said, because everyone was superstitious enough back then that they believed that prayers and offerings would cause reality to change in their favor. He'd have all the power and none of the responsibility for how things turned out.

Note Nichiren's statement here:

“I, Nichiren, am sovereign, teacher, and father and mother to all the people of Japan.” Source

All apocalyptic religions seek to take over the world. Once they've converted the whole world, their teachings declare, something really great for them will happen. Judaism has its "messianic age"; Christianity has its "Second Coming":

"The Second Coming is also important because it will come at the time when the world is most in need of a righteous King." Christianity

And Nichirenism has "kosen-rufu":

"The time will come when all people will abandon the various kinds of vehicles and take up the single vehicle of Buddhahood, and the Mystic Law alone will flourish throughout the land. When the people all chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the wind will no longer buffet the branches, and the rain will no longer break the clods of soil. The world will become as it was in the ages of Fu Hsi and Shen Nung." - Nichiren

"Kosen Rufu of today can be attained only when all of you take on evil religions and convert everyone in the country and let him accept a Gohonzon." - Josei Toda Source

Nichiren clearly saw the solution to the problem of how to attain his goals as convincing the government to wipe away all the other temples and priests, so that Nichiren was the last one standing, the winner of the game of religious musical chairs. Then the people would have to be Nichiren followers, as that would be their only option.

This in itself strikes me as very odd, given that I'm accustomed to people picking and choosing between religions on the basis of which one fits best with their own preconceived notions. But in feudal times across Christendom, as in Japan, whatever the ruler adopted as religion was automatically everyone's religion (sometimes under pain of death). This notion of "individual choice" did not exist.

The concept of "kokuritsu kaidan" translates as "national ordination platform", which is basically meaningless to me as an American. Even the term "ordination", as in "ordained", no longer has any real meaning outside of religious clergy. But even here, there's a precedent in Japan:

Saicho (aka Dengyo Daishi, the title posthumously bestowed upon him) repeatedly requested that the Japanese government allow the construction of a Mahayana ordination platform. Permission was granted in 822 CE, seven days after Saicho died. The platform was finished in 827 CE at Enryaku-ji temple on Mount Hiei, and was the first in Japan. Prior to this, those wishing to become monks/nuns were ordained using the Hinayana Theravada precepts, whereas after the Mahayana ordination platform, people were ordained with the Bodhisattva precepts as listed in the Brahma Net Sutra. Source

By 822, Saichō petitioned the court to allow the monks at Mount Hiei to ordain under the Bodhisattva Precepts rather than the traditional ordination system of the prātimokṣa, arguing that his community would be a purely Mahayana, not Hinayana Theravada one. This was met with strong protest by the Buddhist establishment who supported the kokubunji system, and lodged a protest. Saichō composed the Kenkairon (顕戒論, "A Clarification of the Precepts"), which stressed the significance of the Bodhisattva Precepts, but his request was still rejected until 7 days after his death at the age of 56. Source

What this tells us is that, in Japanese culture, there is this expectation that the government explicitly permits this "ordination platform", thereby providing its endorsement of a religion and sanctioning the ordination of its monks. Back then, the government subsidized their temples.

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