In chapter [11] of the sutra, Śākyamuni’s emanations materialize, having been asked to gather from the ten directions. Chih-i had already suggested that the emanation-bodies of Śākyamuni prove that he had not attained enlightenment only forty years before preaching the Lotus Sutra, otherwise there could not have been so many kalpa-old beings who had received instruction from him. However, Chih-i did not invest Śākyamuni’s emanations with a universal significance, probably because he did not regard Śākyamuni as the only true Buddha of the universe. Nichiren’s declaration that all Buddhas enlightened in the past are emanations of Śākyamuni is of a different nature: it challenges the equality of all Buddhas and, furthermore, operates as a reduction which unifies all Buddhas, not only those appearing in the Lotus Sutra, but also those appearing in other scriptures of the Buddhist canon. It should be noted that this “absolutization” of Śākyamuni, although reminiscent of the idea that “all Buddhas are just one single Buddha” developed by esoteric Tendai in Japan, does not proceed by equating Śākyamuni with another Buddha already defined as universal, like Vairocana, but rather by including all Buddhas (Vairocana, too) in the person of Śākyamuni.

Nichiren discusses at length how all Buddhas are enlightened because of their relation to Śākyamuni Buddha.

If we consider the stage of results, the many Tathāgatas are Buddhas of a past ten kalpas, one hundred kalpas or a thousand kalpas long. Lord Śākyamuni is a Buddha who has [attained] the complete result of subtle awakening as many kalpas ago as five hundred particles of dust. The various Buddhas of the ten directions such as the Tathāgata Vairocana, the Tathāgata Amitābhā and the Tathāgata Bhaisajyaguru are followers of our original teacher, the Lord Śākyamuni. One moon in the sky floats in the water as ten-thousand [moons]. … This Buddha Abundant Treasures, too, is a follower of the Lord Śākyamuni of the chapter “The Long Life of the Tathāgata.