Saichō

Saichō (767 – 822) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei and the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan. He may have been the first to bring tea to Japan.  His posthumous title is Dengyō Daishi.

At an early age, Saichō had been a disciple of Gyōhyō (722 – 797) who had been a disciple of Dao-xuan (702–760, Dōsen in Japanese), a prominent monk of the Tiantai school. After becoming a fully ordained monk in the official temple system, Saichō left for Mt. Hiei for intensive study and practice of Buddhism. In time Saichō attracted other monks and started a monastic community called Enryaku-ji.

When Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyō (Kyoto), Mt. Hiei became very important.  Mt. Hiei is located to the northeast of Kyoto.  According to Chinese geomancy, the northeast is considered dangerous, the Demon Entrance.  Saichō’s group at Enryaku-ji was believed to protect the capital.

One of his earliest supporters at court, Wake no Hiroyo (the son of Wake no Kiyomaro) invited Saichō and others to give lectures. Saichō’s success at the lectures led him to meet Emperor Kanmu. Meeting Emperor Kanmu proved to be crucial in his career.

In 803, Emperor Kanmu sponsored Saichō and the monk Kūkai take part in a diplomatic trip to Tang China. Kūkai went to study the Mahavairocana Tantra. Saichō wanted to study Tiantai Buddhism in China.

Saichō went to Tiantai Mountain studying under the seventh Patriarch of Tiantai, Daosui, who taught him Tiantai methods of meditation, monastic discipline, and orthodox teachings. Saichō spent several months copying various works to bring back to Japan. While waiting for a return ship, Saichō sought out texts and information on Vajrayana (Esoteric) Buddhism.

When Kūkai and Saichō returned from China their texts and practices were to transform the teachings of early Nara sects and entrance Buddhism more firmly in Japan’s political, economic, and spiritual life.

Saichō returned to Japan in 805 and received a grand reception by the court. He worked strenuously to win recognition of his Tendai Lotus school (Tendai-hokke-shū). In 806, Saichō’s Tendai Lotus school won official acknowledgment of the imperial court and became a proper subject of study in Japanese Buddhism. It was the first time the court acknowledged Mikkyō (esoteric Buddhism).

All monastic ordinations took place at Tōdai-ji temple under the Vinaya code, but Saichō intended his school as a strictly Mahayana institution and ordain monks using the Bodhisattva Precepts only. In 822, Saichō petitioned the court to allow the monks at Mount Hiei to ordain under the Bodhisattva Precepts. It met strenuous opposition from the Nara schools. His petition was granted but not until seven days after his death. Thus, the Tendai school became completely separated from other schools.

Relationship with Kūkai

Saichō and Kūkai are renowned as the founders, respectively, of the Japanese Tendai and Shingon schools, both of which grew into influential institutions to the present day.

The relationship between Saichō and Kūkai was very important in the development of Buddhism in Japan. Kūkai and Saichō met during the trip to Tang China, probably during a stop in Fukuoka.  While Saichō was waiting for the return ship, he chanced to meet a Chinese priest knowledgeable about esoteric Buddhism and wanted to learn more about it. When he returned, he discovered that Kūkai had studied these teachings and had an entire library of Vajrayana materials.

Saichō helped prepare the way for Kūkai to perform the Mikkyō initiation ritual for the high priests of the Nara Schools and the imperial court. Saichō also endorsed the court bequest to Kūkai of Takaosan-ji as the first center for Kūkai’s Shingon school. Kukai aided Saichō in incorporating Mikkyō into Tendai by training Saichō and his disciples in the esoteric Buddhist rituals and by lending Saichō various Mikkyō texts that he had brought back from China.

However, these two men were determined to separate their beliefs and ideas from any other existing school of Buddhism. They divided over the use of texts and teaching methods, among other things. In his final years of life, as Saichō strove to establish Tendai as a separate school of Japanese Buddhism, he criticized the Shingon school in his writings. The complex relationship between these two men left a long-lasting legacy in the Tendai and Shingon schools going from affiliation to rivalry, especially during the Heian period.

Legacy

The Tendai sect flourished. It was more practical than Indian Buddhism, thus more appealing. It taught to expect rewards in paradise and punishment in hell as opposed to nirvana (the release into nonbeing) and it drew on diverse teachings including synchronism with Shinto. The monks under Saichō lived a very disciplined life, spending twelve years in seclusion for study and meditation. Afterward, the best were retained in positions in the monastery and the others took government positions. At its peak, Enryaku-ji complex had 3000 sub-temples and an army of warrior monks (sōhei).

Tendai espoused the Lotus Sutra as the highest sutra (canonical statements from Buddha). The Lotus Sutra is both welcoming and compassionate to all. This enabled Tendai to incorporate Pure Land teachings. The Lotus Sutra has had a great impact on literature and art. Its ideas and images are in great works of Chinese and Japanese literature such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and The Tale of Genji. Various events from it are depicted in religious art and poetry.

Tendai Buddhism was the dominant form of mainstream Buddhism in Japan and many founders of other sects such as Nichiren, Hōnen, Shinran, and Dōgen were trained as Tendai monks.

One of his followers was the monk Ennin (793-864). In 854, he became the third abbot of the Tendai sect at Enryaku-ji. His dedication to expanding the monastic complex and its courses of study assured the Tendai school prominence in Japan. While his chief contribution was to strengthen the Tendai tantric Buddhist tradition, the Pure Land recitation practices (nembutsu) that he introduced also helped to lay a foundation for the independent Pure Land movements.