Before: Much like the other major figures of Buddhism in Japan, Nichiren began his career as a Tendai practitioner. Nichiren, the founder of the school that bears his name, intensely studied the Lotus Sutra. In his study of this text, he came to hold a deep and unshakable faith in the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren believed the words of the Lotus Sutra, taking them to heart. Nichiren almost had faith in nothing but the Lotus Sutra due to his interpretation as it being the boat across the river in the Latter Day of the Law.
After: Tendai was once at the forefront of Japanese Buddhism. In line with tradition, just like Kukai and Dogen, Nichiren Daishonin began as a Tendai practitioner. Nichiren becomes distinguished from other Japanese Buddhists because of his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, an integral text to Mahayana Buddhism. Whereas Kukai and Dogen distinguish themselves by delving into Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism respectively, Nichiren believed that he was instead reasserting a true interpretation of Tendai through his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. His interpretation of the sutra is one that takes the sutra as more than just a text, but as one and the same as Shakyamuni Buddha. He also believed that he had not only read the sutra, but that he had lived it. Nichiren's faith in the sutra was unshakable. Various localities persecuted Nichiren throughout his life, notably an attempt at execution and a sentence of exile. Nevertheless, Nichiren continued to study the Lotus Sutra. His unyielding faith eventually led him to becoming one of the main heroes of the Mongol Invasion. He is thought to have summoned the kamikaze, or divine wind, that deterred the Mongol Invasion that seemed to be an existential threat to the Japanese nation. Decades earlier, Nichiren predicted this threat. He predicted that the Latter Day of Dharma arrived, that some kind of eschatological time had come.