Establishing a Normative Doctrine of Nichiren Buddhism

The [Fuji school’s] equation of Nichiren with the original Buddha is not easily reconciled with Nichiren’s own clear expressions of reverence for Śākyamuni as “parent, teacher, and sovereign” of all living beings, and this particular strand of Nichiren Buddhist thought has been much criticized by other Nichiren schools. In recent decades, it has come under attack for lack of basis in Nichiren’s writings by those sectarian scholars of Nichirenshū intent on purifying the Nichiren corpus of apocryphal works as a basis for establishing a normative doctrine, a project in which the present-day inheritors of the Fuji lineage–Nichiren Shōshū–have evinced little interest. (Page 342)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism