(814–891) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded of the Jimon school of

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

Buddhism and Chief Abbot of

Mii-dera , formally called , is a Buddhist temple in Japan located at the foot of Mount Hiei, in the city of Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture. It is a short distance from both Kyoto, and Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. The head temple of the Jimon sect ...

at the foot of

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei b ...

. After succeeding to the post of Tendai , in 873, a strong rivalry developed between his followers and those of

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and re ...

's at

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayan ...

(note: Ennin had died in 864). The rivalry was largely geographical, and was not based much on sectarian differences over interpretations of practice or doctrine; nevertheless, the friction between the followers of the two ''zasu'' finally broke out into a violent conflict. Rivalres between the followers of different ''zasu'' were not anything new at that time. During his twelve years on Hiei, Enchin himself saw a conflict between direct disciples of Saichō (namely Enchō and

Kōshō was a after '' Kyōtoku'' and before ''Chōroku.'' This period spanned the years from July 1455 through September 1457. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', pp. 331349. Change of Era * 1455 : Th ...

) and the disciples of his own master, the second Tendai ''zasu''

Gishin Gishin ( fa, گيشين, also Romanized as Gīshīn) is a village in Derakhtengan Rural District, in the Central District of Kerman County, Kerman Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Per ...

. After the death of Gishin, his main follower, Enshu, was elected as the third ''zasu'', but Enchō and Kōshō objected and finally forced Enshu and his followers to leave Mount Hiei. Most significantly, Enchin united the Tendai school's teachings with those of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, and interpreted the '' Lotus Sutra'' from the point of view of esoteric teachings as well as used Tendai terminology in order to explain the esoteric ''

Mahavairocana Tantra Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the '' Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In E ...

.'' Enchin is said to have supported the worship of native gods (''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'') and certain elements of

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...

. In a memorial speech in 887, he noted the respect the court of

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

had for Japan because of Japan's encouragement and welcoming of the ideals of ''li'' () and ''yi'' (). He warned that though Enryaku-ji was founded with the native gods in mind, "no such officiating monks are provided for the main deities of the

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

. This is certainly a breach of Li. There ought to be two monks to worship the two gods."

References

{{Authority control Japanese scholars of Buddhism 814 births 891 deaths Tendai Japanese Buddhist clergy 9th-century Japanese calligraphers Shugendō practitioners Founders of Buddhist sects Heian period Buddhist clergy