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The lineages of both Christianity and Islam started with the fathers (patriarchs) of the nascent Jewish Religion and are traced to the patriarch Abraham and his descendents Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Moses, David. From that basic tree branch both Mohammed's Islam (Arabs claim descent from Ishmael, son of Abraham, and speak a related language), and Christianity (which started as a Jewish Sect). The Buddhist Religions likewise have a lineage, which started with Shayamuni (Sage or Rebbe of the Shakya clan). Each of these religions traces it's origins to founders, successors and disciples, who form a train of developing thinking that comes down to us through transmissions both oral and written. These original lineages also branch out. Both Christianity and Islam are branches from the original "tree" of the Judean lineage started pre-historically by the patriarchs from Abraham to Moses and continued by teachers, prophets, and organized groups such as those at various Schools or in the ancient Temple at Jerusalem. These transmissions, together, form a linked family of related concepts, their rival concepts, and views, that have evolved over time whether later day believers want to admit it or not. Every religion is part of such a "family" defined by related languages and cultures, usually a mix of rivalries, feuds, and "marriages" between previously unrelated people or their ideas. Oftentimes a lineage will include ideas borrowed from a formal "enemy" and often those ideas go unacknowledged.
Likewise, within Buddhism. Buddhism started with Shakyamuni, and then evolved gradually at first, but more rapidly later, as it was transmitted to new lands and came into contact with other ideas. Buddhism is grounded in the beliefs and practices of India, but it has been changed (sometimes appropriately and sometimes unrecognizably) as it spread. The term for lineage in Buddhism in Japanese is "Kechimyaku".
Among all the issues we are facing in this current day, the issue of "lineage" is probably top on the list. When is a "lineage" correct? What is it that should bind us together? When is it appropriate to follow, to argue, to rebel? When is a "revision" or an interpretation of a teaching appropriate? Is it appropriate, for instance, for feminists to revise Jewish, Buddhist, or even Muslim/Christian teachings, based on their own insights? How far can change go before one is moving into new ground and a religion becomes unrecognizable?
What should be the basis for the transmission of Buddhism? The founder of this religion talks about these things in his Gosho the Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life and Death (Shoji Ichidaiji Kechimyaku Sho) which I discuss on the webpage kechimyaku.html. The question of whether a lineage is inherited through teachings, action, faith, some combination, or as a formality, has been a central one to the history of Religion and Religious conflict. Nichiren directly addressed these issues in his Gosho, but not in a way that lends comfort to authority of any kind.
At the same time, Nichiren's teachings were indeed transmitted via a number of groups. For more on this see my pages on his six disciples, and on "Nichirenism."
One of the central issues of modern times, is the issue of fundamentalism. The root of Fundamentalism is a seeking for the roots of belief, usually in the scriptures of the religions source, and often as interpreted by religious authority. Fundamentalism itself isn't an evil. It is simply a seeking for the truth and authority in ones literal sources.
Yet in every religion those literal sources have been filtered through years of editing, commentary, and authority. They have been transmitted through the imperfect medium of human beings. While many of them would assert that God or Buddha himself wrote their works, that is rarely true in a literal sense.
Even when a work is the "pure work of a founder," it is rarely transmitted so purely. And usually the founders of a religion was, while an extraordinary human being, someone who may not have been as extraordinary as he was portrayed in these original documents. So we have these issues of "transmission and lineage" to warn us in all religion. Even Moses spoke through Aaron, and Aaron is the one who cast the Golden Calves. Religion is a work of dialectic. It often owes its ideas as much to those it was opposed to at one time, as it does to those who actually created the religion. And each religion has a debt of gratitude to the "culture" from which the religion draws its works.
This is true in the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and it is also true in Buddhism. For that reason Buddhism has always emphasized a hermaneutics(way of teaching) based on seeking the underlying message and the wisdom in a teaching, and never been based on a literal-minded reading of texts. This means that, like the Hebrew tradition (and unlike traditions that insist on the sacredness of texts to the point where they cannot be revised, discussed rationally, or re-interpreted), Buddhism teaches that one should rely on the Dharma. If we can rely on a text, it is because that text has stood the text of time. For more on this visit my page on the three proofs; (literal.html)
For more on the concept of Kechimyaku and how it relates to Buddhism, the Sokagakkai and Nichiren Shoshu see kechimyaku.html
See also Michael Ryu's article at this page:http://www.crosswinds.net/~campross/Ryuei/HokkeShu_06.html
For the Nichiren Shoshu assertions about the content of the two transfer documents visit this page:http://www.cebunet.com/nst/htransfer.html
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