Nichiren (日蓮 Nichiren?) (16 de febrero de 1222 - 13 de octubre de 1282), fue un monje budista del siglo XIII en Japón. Es el fundador del budismo nichiren, una rama del budismo japonés, que abarca las escuelas Nichiren Shu, Nichiren Shoshu, el movimiento laico Soka Gakkai y otras escuelas. Los miembros de la Nichiren Shoshu y la Soka Gakkai le otorgan a Nichiren el título de Buda Original. Mientras que Nichiren Shu considera que el Buda Original y Eterno es el Buda Shakyamuni, y que Nichiren es la encarnación del Bodhisattva Jogyo (Prácticas Superiores) a quien el Buda Shakyamuni le encomendó la propagación del Sutra del Loto en la era del Declinar del Dharma. Esa sutil diferencia tiene un efecto importante en el acento que se pone a las enseñanzas de cada quien. Mientras que Nichiren Shoshu y SGI estudian preferentemente las enseñanzas de Nichiren, la orden Nichiren Shu considera a los escritos de Nichiren como documentos subordinados al Sutra del Loto y tal como el mismo Nichiren lo hizo, el principal objeto de estudio es el Sutra. Su nombre originalmente era Zennichimaro (善日麿), más tarde Zeshō-bō Renchō (是生房蓮長) y finalmente Nichiren. Generalmente es más conocido como Nichiren Shōnin (日蓮聖人) o Nichiren Daishōnin (日蓮大聖人). El nombre Nichiren significa en japonés nichi, sol, y ren es una contracción de la palabra renge que significa loto. Fue una figura controvertida en su época.

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Nichiren (日蓮; 16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282), born as Zennichimaro (善日麿), was a Japanese Buddhist priest who lived during the Kamakura period (1185–1333). Nichiren is known for his sole devotion to the Lotus Sutra, asserting that it was Shakyamuni Buddha's ultimate teachings and was the exclusive method to attain enlightenment.Nichiren believed that the Lotus Sutra contained the essence of all of Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings related to the laws of causality, karma, without any distinction to enlightenment. His interpretation of the Lotus Sutra centers on the emphasis of its 16th chapter, The Life Span of the Thus Come One, where he grounds his revelation that the chanting of Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō is the superior practice of Mappō or today's age. Nichiren further justifies this practice of chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō by attributing the natural and social calamities of his time to the inability of the Pure Land, Zen, Shingon, Ritsu, and Tendai schools to divinely protect Japan. Nichiren gained the attention of Japan's ruling Hōjō clan when his two Lotus Sutra-based predictions of foreign invasion and political strife were seemingly actualized by the Mongol invasions of Japan and an attempted coup within the Hōjō clan. The religious remonstration where he stated these two predictions, titled the Risshō Ankoku Ron (立正安国論) (On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Security of the Land), considered by Japanese historians to be a literary classic illustrating the apprehensions of that period. While all Nichiren Buddhist schools regard him as a reincarnation of the Lotus Sutra's Visistacaritra or Jōgyō Bosatsu (上行菩薩), some schools of Nichiren Buddhism's Nikkō lineages regard him as the Buddha of the Latter day of the Law and for all eternity. Today, Nichiren Buddhism includes traditional schools such as Nichiren Shōshū, the Nichiren Shū confederation of schools, and modern lay movements such Kenshokai, Shoshinkai, Soka Gakkai, Risshō Kōsei Kai, and Honmon Butsuryū Shū each claiming their own interpretations of Nichiren's teachings. The fundamental practice shared by all of them is the chanting of Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō.

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