Contemporary Records of Nichiren's funeral!

In this document, Nikko was given no special considerations. If Nikko had received a special and exclusive succession from Nichiren on the latter's deathbed, it is unthinkable that he wouldn't have been the chief celebrant at the funeral; likewise, the distribution of belongings shows that Nikko received no special goods (an inkstand and one other relic, I believe) while Nichiro was given Nichiren's own statue of Shakyamuni and Nissho received the "Chu Hokkekyo" (Nichiren's own annotated copy of the Lotus Sutra).

The six senior priests were on friendly terms until at least 1285. Letters in Nikko's own hand, to the others, show a spirit of reconciliation in later years.. He praised Nichiro in a letter near the end of Nikko's life and he welcomed Nitcho to Kitayama Honmonji, where the latter spend the last 16 years of his life, after a fallout with Toki Jonin, his father in law. If Nichiren had designated Nikko as his exclusive successor and chief priest of Kuonji, the others would have been obligated to respect Nichiren's wishes from 1282. However, Nikko did not stay permanently at Minobu until 1285, when the others could not journey from Kamakura anymore. Niko came to Minobu in late 1285 because Lord Hakiri was not happy with Nikko.....then Nikko left in 1288. All this would have been unthinkable if Nikko was Nichiren's sole successor.

The Ita Mandara was attacked by Nichijo, head priest of Kityama Honmonji and contemporary of Nichi-u (the 9thHP of Taisekiji). Nichijo reveals that Nichi-u became a leper for"having gone against the fundamental intention of the founder of the temple and carving the ita Mandara which had never been seen or heard of; he also produced forged books adorned with his own doctrines".( From the "Taisekiji kyowaku kempon sho" or "the Insane Revelation of the Original Buddha at Tasekiji")

Shigyo Kaishu's study on Nikko's writings shows that in the authentic "Hara" letter, Nikko states that mandalas are to be used until a proper statue of the Eternal Shakyamuni with the attendant four honge bodhisattvas around him could be erected.("...mandala is temporary until a future time..") Shigyo Kaishu's study of the documents of the Nikko faction shows that this attitude was common for the next generation and then began to shift towards a total mandala orientation. Even in all of these Nikko texts, there is no mention of the Ita Mandara. The earliest text giving details of the Ita Mandara (outside of Nichi-u's writings) is the "Kechu Sho" which dates from 1662. And even there, the reference has been tampered with. Bear in mind that Kitayama Honmonji and Taisekiji were on friendly terms until Nichi-u (circa 1480). Thereafter they patched things up. All the high priests of Taisekiji, from number 15 through number 21, were imported from Yoboji, a Nikko temple in Kyoto, and associated with Honmonji Kitayama.