I think when people say Hashirama (non-Edo) was the most powerful/greatest shinobi in existence, this comment holds:
Taking the Madara comment that the landscape was changed when he fought Hashirama as Hashirama's jutsus can cause that much destructive power is not necessarily true, as it could easily have been the Kyuubi that was doing this. We also don't know the circumstances of the Hashirama/Madara fight.
One might assume that Hashirama would need an ability as powerful as Susanoo to match it but like has been proved in Naruto many times, speed, intelligence, special simple defences and other quite simple but effective things can handle over-powered, flashy techniques, i.e. Itachi/Minato. So what Madara claims doesn't = what the manga claims. That's the same mistake Tobi=Madara believers made and Tobi was the one who initially claimed that Hashirama was the most powerful, which was obviously a belief that came from Madara in the first place. What the actual manga actually shows, e.g. a flashback of Hashirama's feats, is what the manga says. Therefore, we don't know Hashirama's actual personal feats from the manga. The closest we have is the Edo-Hashirama that was seen fighting Hiruzen Sarutobi.
And for those who say what he displayed could not be all he had as that would be unable to counter Madara's overpowered abilities or that even Sarutobi would be unable to defeat the more powerful enemies with his basic fire and mud techniques, you're forgetting that the power/jutsu is not what's important and defines a shinobi as skilled or the best, but rather how well they use it. So YES, Prime Hashirama and Prime Sarutobi might have actually been able to handle high-calibre shinobis of their time like Madara and would be able to defeat later Akatsuki members with the very jutsus we saw in their battle in Part 1. But not through using extra/more/greater jutsus, but rather through how they used the jutsus - using the jutsus with a kage-level expert skill that Orochimaru couldn't apply when he was controlling Edo-Hashirama. I'm talking about the sort of kage-level expert skill Minato used to make a very basic technique so effective. I mean, isn't that what being KAGE level is all about?
Ultimately, I find it quite hypocritical that an actual display of Hashirama's powers are ignored for the hype of an imagined idea of an extravagent, flashy, overpowered, super-destructive version of Hashirama's power. Not saying that Hashirama's power might not be like this or that he doesn't have under his belt the great feats that are imagined based on what Madara says, but the manga hasn't really proved that yet cos it hasn't actually showed us that yet.
There's a lot of "Manga says so! Manga > Opinion." But no.... MADARA says so... SAYS. The manga hasn't actually displayed ANY of Hashirama's feats from Hashirama himself. Seeing an overpowered Edo-Madara use Hashirama's techniques does NOT count, and this is because of various things that I wont bother to totally list (Things like unlimited chakra, Edo advantages, etc...). Madara's claims might be very flawed for various reasons; Uchiha arrogance and over-estimation is just one (If a Uchiha holds their powers in great esteem, how would they feel about somebody who fair and squarely defeated them).
Taking the Madara comment that the landscape was changed when he fought Hashirama as Hashirama's jutsus can cause that much destructive power is not necessarily true, as it could easily have been the Kyuubi that was doing this. We also don't know the circumstances of the Hashirama/Madara fight.
One might assume that Hashirama would need an ability as powerful as Susanoo to match it but like has been proved in Naruto many times, speed, intelligence, special simple defences and other quite simple but effective things can handle over-powered, flashy techniques, i.e. Itachi/Minato. So what Madara claims doesn't = what the manga claims. That's the same mistake Tobi=Madara believers made and Tobi was the one who initially claimed that Hashirama was the most powerful, which was obviously a belief that came from Madara in the first place. What the actual manga actually shows, e.g. a flashback of Hashirama's feats, is what the manga says. Therefore, we don't know Hashirama's actual personal feats from the manga. The closest we have is the Edo-Hashirama that was seen fighting Hiruzen Sarutobi.
And for those who say what he displayed could not be all he had as that would be unable to counter Madara's overpowered abilities or that even Sarutobi would be unable to defeat the more powerful enemies with his basic fire and mud techniques, you're forgetting that the power/jutsu is not what's important and defines a shinobi as skilled or the best, but rather how well they use it. So YES, Prime Hashirama and Prime Sarutobi might have actually been able to handle high-calibre shinobis of their time like Madara and would be able to defeat later Akatsuki members with the very jutsus we saw in their battle in Part 1. But not through using extra/more/greater jutsus, but rather through how they used the jutsus - using the jutsus with a kage-level expert skill that Orochimaru couldn't apply when he was controlling Edo-Hashirama. I'm talking about the sort of kage-level expert skill Minato used to make a very basic technique so effective. I mean, isn't that what being KAGE level is all about?
Ultimately, I find it quite hypocritical that an actual display of Hashirama's powers are ignored for the hype of an imagined idea of an extravagent, flashy, overpowered, super-destructive version of Hashirama's power. Not saying that Hashirama's power might not be like this or that he doesn't have under his belt the great feats that are imagined based on what Madara says, but the manga hasn't really proved that yet cos it hasn't actually showed us that yet.
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