Nichiren classifies the Hoke-kyō in the Kanjin Honzon shō according to Kumārajīva’s translation, where the first fourteen chapters form the shakumon part, and the remaining fourteen the hommon part. The shakumon consists of:

1. The Introductory Part, composed of the Muryōgi-kyō [Innumerable Meanings Sutra] and Chapter 1 of the proper Hoke-kyō, dealing with “The Assembly and the Illumination.”
2. The Main Part, formed by the eight chapters from Chapter 2 on “Tactful Revelation” to Chapter 9, narrating the “Prediction of the Future Destiny of Ānanda, Rāhula and the Two Thousand Monks.”
3. The Concluding Part, comprising the five chapters from Chapter 10 on “The Preacher” to Chapter 14 on “The Serene Life.”

The hommon consists of:

1. The Introductory Part, including the first half of Chapter 15 on “The Hosts of Bodhisattvas issuing from the Earth.”
2. The Main Part, containing the second half of Chapter 15, Chapter 16 on “The Eternal Life of the Tathāgata,” and the first half of Chapter 17 on “The Merit and Reward of Faith.”
3. The Concluding Part, consisting of the second half of Chapter 17, the remaining eleven chapters of the proper Hoke-kyō, and in addition the Fugen kan-gyō [Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal-virtue].

This classification coincides with Tendai Daishi’s classification with only one exception—this being that Tendai Daishi does not include the Muryōgi-kyō and the Fugen kan-gyō. Nichiren considered that the main part of the sūtra as a whole was the doctrinal parts of Chapter Il , which maintains that the adherents of the Two Vehicles can become Buddha, and Chapter 16, which says that Śākyamuni is the absolute Buddha since eternity.