Nichiren (born 1222) was a "fighting priest," using language as a weapon to establish the Lotus Sutra as the Supreme Law to supersede Buddhism's many sects. Like Shinran, he consistently challenged the status quo and made his temple among the poorest of the poor. But in Nichiren-the man and the movement-was a nascent nationalism most timely in "the degenerate age" of natural disasters, political unrest, and threats of Mongol invasion. Nichiren is a fascinating study of the person and his times in a looping structure that takes in the narrative present and bits of the past with each round. By turns we come to understand this militant "seeker of truth" and the effect he has on individuals, from noblemen to peasants: Nichiren the swashbuckler and the crier in the rain, the miracle-maker and the exile. Reminiscent at times of Japanese woodblock prints, the film speaks to art as meditation, referencing painted images, figurines, and music; and in visual tropes in which the realms of existence indeed seem permeable.