Ikeda throws Shakyamuni Buddha overboard and takes the helm:

"A passage from the Lotus Sutra reads, '...as though one had found a ship to make the crossing.' This 'ship' might be described as follows: The Lord Buddha, a shipbuilder of infinitely profound wisdom, gathered the lumber of the four tastes and eight teachings, planed it by honestly discarding the provisional teachings, cut and assembled the planks, using both right and wrong, and completed the craft by driving home the spikes of the one, supreme teaching. Thus he launched the ship upon the sea of suffering. Unfurling the sails of the three thousand conditions on the mast of the Middle Way doctrine, driven by the fair wind of 'all phenomena reveal the true entity', the vessel surges ahead, carrying all believers who can enter Buddhahood by their pure faith. Shakyamuni is the helmsman, Taho Buddha mans the sails, and the Four Bodhisattvas led by Jogyo strain in unison at the creaking oars. This is the ship in "a ship to make the crossing", the vessel of Myoho-renge-kyo. Those who board it are the disciples and followers of Nichiren. Believe this whole heartedly."-- MW V1 p.10 A Ship to Cross the Sea Of Suffering