Who are we?

We are numbered among the Bodhisattvas of the Earth: We are they who chant the Daimoku, revere the Gohonzon, Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha, and Nichiren Daishonin. Some of us practice principally shoju and others shakabuku. Some of us view the Gohonzon as the embodiment of the Daimoku, others as the embodiment of the Oneness of Person [as the Eternal Buddha] and Law, and still others as the embodiment of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni [depending on our inner awakening and mastery of the Lotus Sutra].

We are united through our seeking spirit and through having etched, "Follow the Law and not the person", in our hearts. Most of us are united in the belief that the Gohonzon is the source of our guidance and that we are direct disciples of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin. We are also united in our belief that every Nichiren school and individual has both good and bad aspects that we are free to accept, praise, and propagate or to reject, ignore, or rebuke.

As far as your question about how many true disciples and believers there are, we don't keep statistics because neither the Lotus Sutra nor Nichiren Daishonin exhort us to. We are few but I have anecdotal evidence that we are growing for a variety of reasons: The doctrines of all the various Nichiren schools and their believers are partial, contrived, erroneous and/or distorted while ours are sound; the reality that most Nichiren sect believers follow the person rather than the Law while we follow only the Law; and most Nichiren sects believers are unable to exhibit actual proof of Enlightenment in contrast to Shakyamuni Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin, and our disciples and believers. There wouldn't be thirty-five or thirty-six Nichiren sects if they all showed actual proof of Enlightenment.