participation, and illuminated by the all-enlightening power of the Truth.'" Jacqueline Stone claims that "By having faith in the and chanting it before this object of worship, [Nichiren taught] one could in effect enter the mandala and participate in the enlightened reality that it depicts." The founder Nichiren referred to as "the banner of propagation" and "a cluster of blessings." Calligraphic meanings A Nichiren is usually written in traditional kanji characters with the addition of two Siddhaṃ scripts. Although exclusive to the other Buddhist sects of his contemporaneous society, Nichiren was highly inclusive of Vedic and Chinese traditions, viewing them as precursors of his own teachings and personages from these traditions are present on the . Most prominent to all such is the phrase —the primary mantra in Nichiren Buddhism—written down the center in bold calligraphy. This is called the or . Right below, also in bold, Nichiren writes his name followed by his seal. This signifies Nichiren's conviction that his life had manifested the essence of the Lotus Sutra. On the top row can be found the names of Shakyamuni Buddha and Prabhutaratna and the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. The names of deities believed to protect the Buddha land, called the Four Heavenly Kings (Bishamonten, Jikokuten, Kōmokuten, and Zōjōten), further occupy the four corners, and Sanskrit characters depicting Aizen Myō-ō and Fudō Myō-ō are situated along the left and right outer edges. Within this frame are the names of various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, historical and mythological figures in Buddhism, personages representing the ten realms, and deities drawn from Vedic, Chinese, and Japanese traditions are arranged hierarchically. Each of these names represents some aspect of the Buddha's enlightenment or an important Buddhist concept. History Research has documented that Nichiren inscribed 740 . He began inscribing immediately before and during his exile on Sado between late 1271 and early 1274. This follows the attempted and failed execution of him at Tatsunokuchi Beach in 1271. In various letters he referred to this event as his "casting off the transient and revealing the true" (), at which time he claimed to have discarded his transient status and revealed his essential identity as the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law. According to Ikeda, Nichiren's intent in manifesting the was to allow people to connect directly with the Law so they, too, could discard the transient and reveal their essential