by Masuo Nezu

These are personal reminiscences about the late founder Rev. Nikkyo Niwano from his former chief secretary, Masuo Nezu, now in retirement. During his years of service, the writer accompanied Rev. Niwano on dissemination tours, interreligious cooperation activities, and peace promotion work, both in Japan and overseas. This series recalls not only heartwarming episodes from the founder's everyday life, but also the spiritual insights derived from his words and deeds.

36

"Thinking just of yourself is no different from
what an insect does"

Rev. Nikkyo Niwano's first known photograph taken at the age of fourteen in 1920. It was made at a photo studio in Tokamachi near his native village in Niigata Prefecture.

During Founder Niwano's childhood, there were few inns or hotels in his small native village in Niigata Prefecture on the northwestern coast of Japan's main island, so traveling strangers sometimes came to the Niwano home asking if they could spend the night. They say that travelers came to know that the "Juzaemons' (i.e., the Niwano family's) house is a good place to stay." Founder Niwano's parents greeted such unfamiliar people warmly, saying, "Welcome. Come spend the night. We'll be happy to share zosui (rice and vegetable porridge) with you, and tomorrow morning we'll even pack you a lunch."

At their hearth they invited the traveler to sit around the wood fire like part of the family circle and then served them zosui from the caldron over the flames. The following morning they cooked rice and made a box lunch for the traveler. In those days most village-travelers carried their own (meal) box; but if they did not, the Niwanos gave them one--Rev. Niwano's mother filling it with onigiri (rice balls) plus, to keep the rice from going bad quickly, some umeboshi (pickled ume) and miso-zuke (miso pickles). In such a family atmosphere, the travelers must surely have been doubly warmed--both in body and in mind.

Typhoid fever had once been common where the Niwanos lived. Since in the center of rice field there stood a hut used for setting off fireworks in the summer, typhoid patients were sometimes temporarily quarantined in the hut. In addition, the doctors needed help from willing volunteer villagers. The patients' soiled clothing needed to be washed, of course, and whenever a doctor had to move a patient, he needed strong men to help. Rev. Niwano's grandfather, Jutaro, was a ready volunteer. Seeing his tireless devotion to such work from which others shrank, fearful of contagion and feeling repulsed, the physician would say, "Any man with such a benevolent nature as yours ought to go into medicine." So the doctor taught Jutaro various medical skills and even called him "Nantei," a familiar, affectionate nickname for a medical man. After that, whenever a sick person in the village needed urgent care, Jutaro would hurry to help. If a villager experienced any swelling, for example, Jutaro treated it. His skills and his devotion were appreciated even by the people of the neighboring village.

One day Founder Niwano was reflecting on his boyhood during a dissemination tour: "Just taking care of yourself is no different from what an insect does. Even though one is born as a human, one doesn't deserve to be called a 'lord of creation' without working for others' sake as well as one's own. My grandfather taught me that when I was a little boy. 'Grow up to be a man,' he'd say, 'who does good for others and for society, too.'"

"God (kami-sama) kindly wakes me up each morning"

Founder Niwano was the second of four brothers. He had a sister, too. His older brother was very skillful at doing just about anything; the only thing he couldn't do was to get up early in the morning when he had gone to bed very late. His inability to be roused without a parental call was the only thing about him that disappointed their father. Seeing that, Rev. Niwano resolved in his boyhood never to put his father to the trouble of waking him up. It is said that he never once had to be called. "Even when I stayed up till one or two a.m.," Rev. Niwano recalled, "I always awoke when I was supposed to." Once he remembered with a laugh, "God kindly awakened me; I didn't need an alarm."

Even after coming to Tokyo to work, and after entering upon the religious life, this fortuitous habit of his never changed.