[I]n both the Shō-hoke-kyō (Chinese translation of the
Lotus Sūtra by Dharmaraksa) and Myō-hoke-kyō (Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sūtra) the Buddha has precisely defined the time for the spread of this sūtra to be when the “world is dreadful and evil, the future Latter Age, the Latter Age when the dharma is about to be extinguished,” or “the last (fifth) five-hundred-year period after the death of the Buddha.”

Had there not been three kinds of strong enemies against the practicer of the Lotus today, who would believe in the Buddha? Had there not been Nichiren, who would be the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra to prove the Buddha’s prediction?

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 57