The works of Nichiren Shonin should be more than enough to show that the orthodox
position, the correct standpoint, asserts the primacy of the mind of faith, not the absence
or denial of faith.  We must now see what that specific tradition says.

It is all but incomprehensible that the Kempon Hokke tradition, founded by Nichiju
Shonin to restore the authentic teachings of Nichiren Shonin, would have turned against
the conspicuous truth declared by Nichiren.

At the end of his life, Nichiju-Shonin specifically stated that if anything he had said or
written went against Nichiren's essential meaning, his disciples should not accept them
as the heart of their teaching.
(The Record of Nichiun cited in the Seiten-edited by Reverend Kubota Tetsuju, p. 639)

Even if the orthodox tradition of the Kempon Hokke had disregarded the obvious and
life-long teachings of Nichiren Shonin, Nichiju-Shonin would have disowned such heresy.
In effect, no one has the right to overrule the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Daishonin. For
the first two hundred years of the Myomanji tradition, the teachers engaged in vigorous
remonstrance and propagation and wrote little in the way of systematic or theoretical
treatises on the Dharma;  however, Nichiju Shonin wrote in praise of the superior benefits
of the  "one thought of faith and understanding" as well as the practice of the Daimoku
without any contradiction. (Seiten, p. 650)

It was in the Edo period (1603-1868) that the tradition began to be expounded in an
orderly fashion.  We can examine the opinions of several teachers of the Kempon Hokke
Sect:

Yotokuln Kenryin Nichijo (1598-1645) upheld the doctrine of faith: in his,

"Shingyo yodo gi"  he refers to the Kegon Sutra passage on "faith as the Origin
of the Way" and the above-cited Hokke mongu ki passage that faith "the beginning
of establishing the practice of the Doctrine of the Original (hommon)."

He describes the superiority of Nichiren Shonin's doctrine to meditational doctrine
of Tendai as:

"believing (shin zu) in the Sublime Wisdom of the Original Buddha of the Doctrine
of the Original."

 He states, "When one believes and chants (shinsho sureba) this Sublime Name
[i.e., the Daimoku],  one certainly becomes Golden-colored Tathagata." (The term
"believe and chant" appears to have been often used in the Kempon Hokke sect. Sect.)

 In any case, Kenry-Nichijo upholds the presence of the, "power of the Buddha"
(butsuryoku),  the "power of the Dharma" (horyoku), and the "power of faith"(shinryoku),
the three powers mentioned earlier; his doctrine is described as the "practice of chanting the
Daimoku with the mind of faith." (Described and analyzed by the noted Kempon Hokke
priest, Sasakawa Giyu in his Nichiren Shonin no ji ken, pp. 96-1 00)

Honshoin Nittatsu (d. 1772) emphasized one thought of the mind of faith: "the 'One
Thought' of One Thought is Three Thousand Realms (ichinen sanzen) relates to the One
Thought of the Mind of Faith of the Practicer." Also he says, "As to the Actual One Thought
is Three Thousand Realmsji no ichinen sanzen) in the present school, "One Thought" is the
One Thought of Receiving and Keeping by the Mind of Faith if the Practicer of the Original
(or Fundamental) Dharma." His interpretation of the doctrine of Actual Practice One Thought
is Three Thousand Realms jigyo no ichinen sanzen) in the Kanjin honzon sho is "one thought
of the mind of faith of our receiving and keeping". (Sasakawa, op. cit., 103-105)

 Eishoin Nichiju (1692-1776) emphasized the primacy of the mind of faith (shinjin) and
states "the Daimoku of Faith is the Principal Practice." Likewise he describes the Attainment
of Buddhahood: "the power of faith and the power of the Buddha become one..."
(Sasakawa, op. cit., 114-115)

 Eishbin Tsugi Nichikan of Jakkoji (1806-1869), who followed the above Nichiju says of the
Patriarch's teaching: "when we face the Object of Worship, and wholly orally chant with the
mind of faith, the seed of attaining Buddhahood is planted in the field of our mind."
(Sasakawa, op. cit., 117,120)

Kobayashi Nisshi (1843-1912) asserted "this sect ... takes the Great Mandala as the Sublime
Field (or Object) of faith, reverence to which we give (return) our lives" and "holds the
believing thought (shinnen) and oral chanting of Namu Myoho renge kyo, the Actual One
Thought is Three Thousand Realms (ji no ichinen sanzen) of the "Chapter of the Measure
of Life" of the Doctrine of the Original (hommon no Juryohon) to be the Sublime Practice
(myogyo) in which Faith and Wisdom are one (or the Sublime Practice of the Unity of Faith
and Wisdom).  Again "in the very essence of the Practicer who has believing thought (shinnen)
in the Sublime Dharma are contained the Three Thousand Realms which the Buddha Effect
gives rise to as function and [the Practicer] rapidly achieves the Buddha Body."
(Sasakawa, op. cit., 125,130)