Nichiren never formed a close personal relationship with any living person as teacher, why do you?

“Though Nichiren would eventually trace his Dharma lineage from Šakyamuni through Zhiyi (538–597) and Saicho (767-822), he never did form a close personal relationship with any living person whom he revered throughout life as his teacher, as Dõgen did Ruzhing or Shinran did Hõnen. It was during his early years on Hiei, Takagi suggests, that Nichiren developed his lifelong habit of turning to texts, rather than human teachers, for instruction and the resolution of doubts, an approach that he later equated with the Nirvana Sutra’s admonition to “rely on the Dharma and not upon persons.”” -- unknown [to me] author