Japan: Notable Religious Figures, Theologians, Philosophers, and Scholars

688 - 763 - Jianzhen / Ganjin (All Facts)

• Chinese Buddhist Monk of the Tang Dynasty

  • He was blind

• He reached Japan after five unsuccessful attempts in the hopes of propagating Buddhism there

  • These efforts culminated in his founding of the Toshodaiji Temple in Nara, Japan

  • He was granted a center of studies and ordination platform in the Temple for his efforts

767 - 822 - Saicho (All Facts)

• Founder of the Tendai Sect of Buddhism

• Founder of the Enryakuji Temple

1133 - 1212 - Honen (All Facts)

• He was the founder of the Pure Land Sect

• He joined the Tendai Sect in 1148

1141 - 1215 - Eisai (All Facts)

• Japanese Buddhist Priest

• He founded the Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism in Japan

  • He introduced Zen Buddhism into Japan when he was around 50 years old

  • His techniques included sudden physical shocks and meditation on paradoxical statements

• He also invented the technique for making what we now know as matcha, the Japanese Green tea that is now a popular drink

  • His technique, growing the leaves in the shade, gives matcha its characteristic bright green color and strong umami flavor

  • Tea leaves are ground into a fine powder and whisked with hot water

1200 - 1253 - Dogen (All Facts)

• Japanese Buddhist Priest and Monk

  • He travelled to China on a journey, upon which on his return he founded the Soto School

• He founded the Soto School of Zen Buddhism in Japan

1173 - 1263 - Shinran (All Facts)

• Japanese Buddhist during the Kamakura Shogunate

• He founded the True Pure Land Sect (“Jodo Shinshu”) in Japan

  • This became (and still is) the largest Buddhist sect in Japan in part because it rejected monasticism and ascetic practices

• He taught that salvation came only through faith and the Buddha’s grace

1222 - 1282 - Nichiren (All Facts)

• Japanese Buddhist Monk and Philosopher during the Kamakura Shogunate

  • He was a fisherman’s son

• He preached a remarkable sermon in which he denounced the traditional Buddhist sects of Jodo and Zen and established his own sect based on Lotus Sutra

  • He proclaimed the “Lotus Sutra,” the central writing of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, as the supreme Buddhist scripture

  • He desired to end Buddhist sectarianism in order to regenerate and unify Japan against China

• His followers were militant and intolerant of other beliefs, which he called blasphemous

  • His zealotry had already made him many enemies among powerful people

• He insisted that his disciples strengthen their faith by chanting “I take my refuge in the Lotus Sutra”

• He added a highly nationalist element to Japanese Buddhism

• His followers were persecuted repeatedly in the 1500s, notably

  • during the hegemony of Hōjō Ujitsuna

  • when monks from Tendai monasteries on Mt. Hiei (northwest of Kyoto) swept down onto the city and massacred his followers In 1529 / 1536)

1619 - 1682 - Yamakazi Ansai (All Facts)

• Japanese Philosopher and Scholar

• He founded thriving schools in Kyoto and Tokyo (Edo), where he took inspiration from the Chinese philosophers of the Song Dynasty

1622 - 1685 - Yamaga Soko (All Facts)

• Japanese Philosopher

• He was a controversial leading scholar of his day

• He took against his masters in a violent way and burned all the books he wrote

• As a result of his book questioning Confucian thought, it was banned and he was banished from Edo and placed in the custody of the lord of Ako

1665 - Yamaga Soko: Essentials of the Sacred Teachings (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author questions accepted Japanese interpretations of Confucian thought

• Work which was banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate, who saw it an attack on the shogunate’s ideological foundation