More than two thousand years have already passed since the Buddha's death.

During this period, Buddhism has spread throughout the entire world,
especially in India, China and Japan, to such an extent that monks are as
numerous as rice and hemp plants and doctrines as plentiful as bamboo and
reeds.  However, not a single temple in the three countries has ever made an
object or worship of Lord Shakyamuni of the essential teaching flanked by the
bodhisattvas who are his original disciples.  Such a thing has never been
heard of before.  Those who built the tens of thousands of temples in Japan
did not know that they should have made an object of worship of Lord Shakyamuni flanked by the four bodhisattvas.  Even though Prince Shotoku founded Shitenno-ji, the first Buddhist temple in Japan, he established as
its object of worship a statue of Amida Buddha, flanked by bodhisattvas such
as Kannon, and also made images of the Four Heavenly Kings.  The Great Teacher Dengyo built Enryaku-ji temple, but he enshrined an image of Yakushi Buddha of the eastern realm in the main hall as the object of worship.  He  made no object of worship of Lord Shakyamuni who attained enlightenment in the remote past and the attendants who have since been with him.  I have
 never heard of such an object of worship in any of the seven major temples in
Nara, let alone in the temples of the countryside.
 
Having had doubts about the matter, I consulted the passages of the Lotus
Sutra, and they reveal why this object of worship has never before appeared.
The sutra clearly states that it should not be established before the
predicted age of conflict in the Latter Day of the Law.  Those Buddhist
scholars and teachers who appeared in this world during the Former and Middle Days of the Law did not establish this object of worship because they honored the Buddha's prohibition.

 Had an object of worship of Lord Shakyamuni who attained enlightenment countless aeons before and his attendants ever been made during the Former and Middle Days, it would have been like the sun appearing at night or the moon shining by day.  Because Bodhisattva Jogyo  will establish this object of worship in the first five hundred years of the Latter Day, those four ranks of scholars and teachers who appeared during the Former and Middle Days did not even describe it in words.  Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu knew of it in their hearts but did not speak to others about it.

  The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai Chih-che also knew of it, but, as he was a
  bodhisattva of the theoretical teaching, though he taught it in part, he did
  not expound its true meaning.  He taught it indistinctly, like the cry of a
  cuckoo which one hears just before waking from a dream.  Other Buddhist
  teachers did not say so much as a single word about it. For at Eagle Peak,
  Shakyamuni Buddha strictly prohibited those scholars and teachers who were
  bodhisattvas of the theoretical teaching, and who would appear during the two
  thousand years of the Former and Middle Days, from disclosing even
  indirectly prior to the Latter Day anything about Lord Shakyamuni of the
  essential teaching who attained enlightenment in the remote past and the four
  Bodhisattvas of the Earth led by Jogyo who have accompanied him ever
  since."

   From Major Writings, Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 3, pages 293, 294,
   295, Four Bodhisattvas.