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)

Another frequent interpretation regarding figures on the mandala takes the four leaders of the bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth–Superior Conduct, Boundless Conduct, Firm Conduct, and Pure Conduct–as representing the four universal elements of fire, wind, earth, and water, which form all things. Thus, the entire dharma realm is seen as the four bodhisattvas:

The four bodhisattvas who are the leaders of the Buddha’s original disciples manifest themselves as the four great elements. … Because [one constantly] receives and makes use of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind that comprise the dharma realm, they might evoke no particular feeling of respect, but when one enquires into their essence, then the benefits they confer are unexpectedly vast. Day and night, the land and its inhabitants (eshō), and the myriad things all dis play the benefits conferred by the four bodhisattvas.

This equation of the four leaders of the bodhisattvas who emerged out of the earth with the four universal elements appears in medieval Tendai commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra and also in some writings attributed to Nichiren. This identification is developed through the kanjin-style technique of association by isomorphic resemblance discovered between the behavior of the four elements and the names of the four bodhisattvas. Earth is stable and is associated with “Firm Conduct.” Water cleanses and is consequently identified with “Pure Conduct.” Fire rises and is therefore assimilated to “Superior Conduct. ” Wind is unrestrained and is thus equated with “Boundless Conduct.”

In the following transmission on the mandala, attributed to Nichizō, a disciple of Nichirō of the Hikigayatsu lineage, the identification of the four bodhisattvas with the four elements is invoked to suggest that the Wonderful Dharma shall, in the Lotus Sūtra’s words, be declared and spread” (kōsen-rufu):

The placement of Superior Conduct (together with Boundless Conduct] and Pure Conduct [together with Firm Conduct] opposite one other [on either side of the central inscription of the mandala] expresses the meaning that the fire of wisdom represented by Superior Conduct, in dependence on the wind represented by Boundless Conduct, shall be widely declared (kōsen), and that the water of wisdom represented by Pure Conduct, in conformity with the earth represented by Firm [Conduct], shall spread (rufu).

(Page 331-332)