A marginal, often persecuted figure with only a small following, Nichiren himself had to abandon expectations that this goal would be achieved soon. Nonetheless, he introduced into the tradition of Lotus Sūtra interpretation what might be called a millennial element, a prophecy or vision of an ideal world based on the spread of exclusive faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Especially since the modern period, that vision has undergone multiple reinterpretations from a range of social and political perspectives. Nichiren’s ideal of manifesting the buddha land in the present world gives his doctrine an explicitly social dimension that sets it apart from other Buddhist teachings of his day. It is also the aspect of his teaching that speaks most powerfully to the “this-worldly” orientation of today’s Buddhist modernism.