Nichizō Shōnin

was a Buddhist priest who spread the teachings of the Lotus Sutra to the island of Yakushima in southern Japan. In 1488 he founded the temple of . Due to his missionary activities all of the temples on the island transitioned to the Nichiren school of Buddhism. Since then, the native kami of the Shinto religion, Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, has been venerated as a manifestation of the Buddhist mountain deity Ippon Hoju Daigongen. This fusion of the indigenous Shinto religion with the introduced Buddhism religion is known as Shinbutsu-shūgō.