About Lord Shakyamuni of the essential teaching who attained enlightenment in the remote past and the four Bodhisattvas of the Earth

"Having had doubts about the matter, I consulted the passages of the Lotus Sutra, and they reveal why this object of worship has never before appeared. The sutra clearly states that it should not be established before the predicted age of conflict in the Latter Day of the Law. Those Buddhist scholars and teachers who appeared in this world during the Former and Middle Days of the Law did not establish this object of worship because they honored the Buddha's prohibition.  Had an object of worship of Lord Shakyamuni who attained enlightenment countless aeons before and his attendants ever been made during the Former and Middle Days, it would have been like the sun appearing at night or the moon shining by day. Because Bodhisattva Jogyo will establish this object of worship in the first five hundred years of the Latter Day, those four ranks of scholars and teachers who appeared during the Former and Middle Days did not even describe it in words. Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu knew of it in their hearts but did not speak to others about it. The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai Chih-che also knew of it, but, as he was bodhisattva of the theoretical teaching, though he taught it in part, he did not expound its true meaning. He taught it indistinctly, like the cry of a cuckoo which one hears just before waking from a dream.  Other Buddhist teachers did not say so much as a single word about it. For at Eagle Peak, Shakyamuni Buddha strictly prohibited those scholars and teachers who were bodhisattvas of the theoretical teaching, and who would appear during the two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days, from disclosing even indirectly prior to the Latter Day anything about Lord Shakyamuni of the essential teaching who attained enlightenment in the remote past and the four Bodhisattvas of the Earth led by Jogyo who have accompanied him ever since."(Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume 3, Establishing the Four Bodhisattvas as the Object of Worship -- 1279)