The twenty-first chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the “Divine Powers of the Buddha,” says: “Thereupon those bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground, as numerous as the dust-particles of 1,000 worlds, all heartfully pressed their hands together in reverence of the Buddha, looked up to the noble countenance of the Buddha and said to Him, ‘World Honored One! We will propagate this sūtra after Your death in the lands of Buddhas in manifestation (funjin Buddhas) and in this world from which You will pass away.’ ”

T’ien-t’ai offers an interpretation of this in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “No bodhisattvas other than those who had sprung up from underground made this vow to the Buddha.” Tao-hsien declared in his Supplement to the Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “The propagation of this sūtra was entrusted only to those bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground. Why was it so? Because it was the dharma preached by the Eternal Buddha in the eternal past, the task of preaching it was entrusted to those who received His guidance in the eternal past.”

After all, Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Monjushiri) is a disciple of the Immovable (Fudō) Buddha of the Golden World in the east; Avalokiteśvara (Kannon) is that of the Buddha of Infinite Life in the west; Bodhisattva Medicine King (Yakuō), of Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue (Nichigatsu Jōmyō-toku) Buddha; and Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Fugen), of Treasure Power Virtue (Hōitoku) Buddha. These bodhisattvas have come to this world solely to assist Śākyamuni Buddha in carrying out the work of His ministry. They merely represent bodhisattvas who appeared in sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra or in its theoretical section, and who did not possess the great dharma of the essential section. How can they qualify to propagate it in the Latter Age of Degeneration?

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 157-158