In the second part of this article, issues of Japanese perception of the Mongol invaders are discussed. Contrary to official statements of Khagan Kublai and his descendants, the great khans of the Yuan Dynasty, about their receiving a “Heavenly Mandate” to rule the entire oikumene, which is why Japan was obliged to obey them, in Japanese society the Mongols received cognomen “foreign pirates” and “bandits”, with whom it is necessary to conduct a war. Unlike other peoples who got into XIII century under rule of the Mongols and sometimes noticing positive qualities in their enslavers, the Japanese saw practically nothing positive in their opponents. In the following centuries, the already negative image of the Mongols underwent changes towards further “barbarization” due to the collision of Japan with undesirable European and Russian foreigners, whose negative features were retrospectively transferred to the Mongols, who turned into demons in the common people. At the same time, the Mongols were not regarded here, as in Christian and Muslim cultures, as “God’s punishment” and submission to them,was not justified. However, Buddhist monk and uncompromising reformer of Buddhism, Nichiren (1222–1282) believed that the country’s problems stemmed from false teachings and disrespect for the “Lotus Sutra”, the only work in which the highest truth is concentrated. Apparently, only Nichiren spoke of the Mongols with a degree of respect and blamed the authorities and the people for the military cataclysms that befell the country, not them. He claimed that the Mongol invasion was extremely painful but necessary means to return Japan to the true path, and only reverence for the “Lotus Sutra” could prevent disasters, but he was not heard.
Yuliy I. Drobyshev (Wed,) studied this question.