The Descent of the Star Ichi on the Thirteenth Night of the Ninth Month, from the series A Short Pictorial Biography of the Founder of the Nichiren Sect

Kuniyoshi's series narrates the life of Nichiren, a thirteenth-century Buddhist monk. A controversial figure who advocated greater austerity within Buddhism, Nichiren blamed contemporary catastrophes such as typhoons and earthquakes on the popularity of other Buddhist sects. Kuniyoshi's interpretation of events emphasizes how astronomical bodies and meteorological phenomena supernaturally interceded on Nichiren's behalf, as when the sun's powerful rays saved the monk from death by miraculously destroying his would-be executioners' weapons. In this image, the Buddha appears to Nichiren in the form of the Star of Wisdom.