In the … thousand years of the Semblance Age, the teachings of the Buddha in India gradually were brought to China and Japan. Aeons ago, Śākyamuni Buddha, at the assembly of the Lotus Sūtra entrusted such great bodhisattvas of the theoretical teachings as Medicine King Bodhisattva and great bodhisattvas from other lands with propagating the first fourteen chapters (from the first to the fourteenth “Peaceful Practices” chapter), the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sūtra during the Age of the Semblance Dharma. This, however, was preparatory propagation for great bodhisattvas, disciples of the Original and Eternal Buddha, to spring up from underground in the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration in order to inspire all the people in the world to chant, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” the gist of the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra. The leading masters who propagated the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, were Nan-yüeh, T’ien-t’ai, and Miao-lê in China and Dengyō in Japan.

We are now at the start of the Latter Age, when disciples of the Original and Eternal Buddha such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice should appear to propagate the Lotus Sūtra as predicted by Śākyamuni Buddha.

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 70