Any heritage is something that is passed down. It can be a formal thing, or very informal. Some inheritances are very legal matters. A person can will a school, a building, even the leadership of an organization, to a single person. When that happens, matters of succession can become wrapped up in matters of money, power, influence, legitimacy, etceteras. It is a formal issue tied to the very legitimacy of religious groups themselves. And often the result of a dispute over matters of heritage leads to schisms within formerly unary groups.
The central notion at contention is the conceit of the current High Priest of what he refers to as the heritage of the 'Entity of the Law.' For example this was written in an Oko1:
The Heritage of the Law, [Kechi-myaku], of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism was transmitted in its entirety from Nichiren Daishonin to the second High Priest, Nikko Shonin. This is revealed in The Document Entrusting the Law that Nichiren Propagated Throughout His Life:2
The Law that Nichiren propagated with my life throughout my lifetime is entrusted to Byakuren Ajari Nikko, who should be respected as the Great Master of Propagation of the Essential Teachings.
The order of the Heritage, Nichiren-Nikko. (Shinpen, p. 1675)3
The priest goes on to say:
The Daishonin wrote this document in September of 1282, the fifth year of Koan. Then, on October 13, 1282, the day of His passing, He wrote the document for the Entrustment of Minobu-san. Both of them verify, as documentary records, that the transmission of the Heritage of the Law of the True Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin was entrusted to only one person, Nikko Shonin.
Aside from the fact that the source material may be apocryphal, even if you grant Nichiren's authorship of the transfer documents, it is a stretch to go from there to the notion that the "transmission" was only entrusted to one person. Yet if you believe some official Nichiren Shoshu sources you'd think:
Oct91 Myodo:
"Forty-eighth High Priest Nichiryo Shonin's Zoku Kechu Sho, a biographical survey of all High Priests, can be summarized: "...at Taisekiji we possess the Heritage of the Law passed from Master to Disciple. We must believe that the High Priest, who receives this lineage, is equal to Nichiren Daishonin. Thus we can sow the seed of Buddhahood among the people." (p10)
Well this is something no other school of Nichiren Buddhism currently teaches. For most schools the "high priest" doesn't have much more power than anyone else. Most Nichiren Buddhists get their ideas of the general heritage of faith from the Shoji Ichidaiji Kechimyaku Sho, (see kechimyaku.html), but the notion that the current high priest is equal to Nichiren, by definition, is by Taisekiji Fuji School logic, equating him to the "True Buddha" as well. Its rather a stretch. You can find some of the history of this notion in the "Untold History of the Fuji School" but even that book doesn't do justice to the subject. Jim Celer, in his critique of this notion writes4:
Other Nichiren Shoshu publications refer to this as "The Living Essence of the Law" and "the enlightened life of Nichiren Daishonin".
From the notion that what is inherited makes the inheritor "equal to Nichiren
Daishonin" is derived the Nichiren Shoshu insistence on "absolute faith in and strict obedience to the High Priest" (Dai Nichiren 3 p.13), it's belief that "having faith in and chanting daimoku to the Gohonzon is not enough" (paraphrase, ibid p.25), and it's arrogance that even a Gohonzon inscribed by the Daishonin still needs the High Priest's sanction (NST News Special Edition p.3-4)
But is any of this -- is the basic assumption of inheriting the Daishonin's
enlightened life -- consistent with the Gosho?
When the Daishonin talks about his, and our, true identities, he does not offer codicils.
- "The Buddha...and we common mortals are in no way different or
separate from each other" (Heritage of the Ultimate Law).
- "Never seek this Gohonzon outside yourself." (Real Aspect of the Gohonozn).
- "...Myoho-renge-kyo
is you life itself." (On Arraining Buddhahood).
Nor does he qualify what it takes to attain the state of life of Buddhahood.
- "Your faith alone will determine these things." (Reply to Kyo'o)
- "Without the lifeblood of faith, it would be useless to embrace the lotus Sutra." (Heritage of the Ultimate Law).
- "You must awaken to the mystic truth which has always been within your life." (On Attaining Buddhahood).
- "The Gohonzon exists in the
mortal flesh of we ordinary people who embrace the Lotus Sutra and chant
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo." (Real Aspect).
At no point did he ever say "I'll be giving the enlightenment of Buddhahood to a single person; you must bvet it from him". At no point did he say "you must awaken to the mystic truth which enters a man's life the moment he becomes high priest."
So there has no doubt been a lineage of 67 high priests who had custody of the physical Dai-Gohonzon. Reading anything more than that into the tranfer documents is to teach concepts Nichiren himself never taught.
What happened here? Well what happened here is that Nichiren Shoshu has tried to carry the concepts of "kuden" (oral and secret) teachings into the modern age. Originally monks would pass on key ideas to key monks in order to keep them safe. For instance, its pretty clear that Nichiren intended his disciples to be very careful in discussing Shingon and Tendai publicly because of the similarity to his own teachings and his inheritance from the Tendai Tradition. So it is entirely possible that Nichiren did in fact start an oral tradition among the Fuji Monks. Over the years politics has entered that equation and they've come to assert an esoteric content to their teachings that justifies the power and position of their high priest.
The heritage passed to a single person is just a single incidence of the passing of truths from one person to everyone. Nichiren never intended what Nichiren Shoshu asserts.