The first of the four shared categories was that of the pre-Lotus Sūtra teachings, widely held to be incomplete, in that they denied the possibility of Buddhahood to certain groups: followers of the two “Hinayāna” vehicles of the voice-hearer (śrāvaka) and the condition-perceiver (pratyeka-buddha), women, and evil men. Their relationship to the Lotus Sūtra, however, was an issue of profound disagreement, most particularly between the Tendai and Nichiren Buddhist traditions. Many Tendai scholars maintained that, read in the light of the Lotus, all these earlier teachings could be integrated within the one vehicle as expressions of its various aspects (zettai kaie); from this hermeneutical perspective, the practices associated with them, such as the nenbutsu, could all be regarded as the practice of the Lotus Sūtra. For Nichiren and his later followers, however, all earlier teachings were to be rejected in favor of the Lotus Sūtra, which was to be embraced and practiced exclusively (sōtai kaie). From the standpoint of thought and practice, this represents the greatest point of cleavage between the two traditions. (Page 353)

Iwata Kyōen, editor of the volume of the Tendaishū zensho (Complete works of the Tendai school) containing the major Eshin kuden hō mon, draws attention to the following passage in the Zōda shō, compiled by Songai’s disciple Gōkai (fl. 1347):

Question: What is the abbreviated method of practice of the threefold Lotus Sūtra [advocated by] the Great Teacher [Saichō]?

According to transmission, [this method consists of three lines. One:] “Namu to the Sūtra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma, which opens the three [vehicles] to reveal the one [vehicle] and opens the recent [attainment of the Buddha in this world] to reveal the distant [i.e., his original enlightenment in the remote past], the single vehicle in which the mind, the Buddha and all living beings [are without distinction] ” (Namu-kaisan-kennichi-kaigon-kennon-shin-butsu-shujō-ichijōmyōhō-renge-kyō). (This represents the fundamental Lotus Sūtra.) [Two:] “Namu Buddha.” (This represents the hidden and secret Lotus Sūtra.) [Three:] “Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō.” (This represents the Lotus Sūtra that was preached explicitly.) According to transmission, one should recite these three lines morning and evening, without neglect.)

As touched upon in earlier chapters, the chanting of single phrases designed to encompass the essence of the Lotus Sūtra definitely predated Nichiren, and references to such practices occur occasionally in medieval Tendai literature. However, it is also possible that passages such as the one above represent the direct influence of Nichiren Hokke practice upon the medieval Tendai tradition, and that the daimoku, while subject to differing interpretations, was to some extent chanted within Tendai circles. (Page 352)

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)

The equation of Nichiren with the original Buddha represents a bold if convoluted attempt to free Nichiren from the context of the preceding historical tradition of Śākyamuni’s Buddhism and to relocate Śākyamuni within the context of Nichiren’s teaching. Structurally, it resembles medieval Tendai claims that Chih-i’s inner enlightenment is prior to and surpasses the text of the Lotus Sūtra preached by Śākyamuni. It also suggests the nonlinearity and reversals of time and hierarchy characteristic of medieval Tendai kanjin-style interpretations: The seed surpasses the harvest; the stage of practice surpasses that of attainment; Superior Conduct, a bodhisattva, is superior to Śākyamuni, a Buddha; and Nichiren, who lived after Śākyamuni in historical time, becomes his teacher in beginningless time. In the reading of the three jewels of Buddhism adopted by most schools within the Nichiren tradition, the Buddha is defined as the original Śākyamuni of the “Fathoming the Lifespan” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the Dharma is Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, and the Sangha is represented by Nichiren. In the Fuji school, however, the Buddha is Nichiren, the Dharma is Namu- myōhō-renge-kyō, and the Sangha is represented by Nikkō. Founder worship is hardly uncommon in Japanese Buddhism, but nowhere has it been provided with a more elaborate doctrinal rationale than in the Fuji lineage of the Nichiren tradition. (Page 341-342)