Saicho Dengyo Daishi

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Saicho, Dengyo Daishi 伝教大師最澄
Dengyoo Daishi, Saichoo
Temple Enryaku-ji and Mount Hieizan

Saicho, besides Kukai, is a remarkle figure in the development of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan. The presend exhibition (see below) was the start of this article.

"Faith and Syncretism:
Saicho and Treasures of Tendai"
May 7 , 2006 at the Tokyo National Museum

Saicho (766-822),
posthumously known as Dengyo Daishi ("Great Teacher who Transmitted the Teachings"), established the Tendai Sect in Japan in 806 (Enryaku 25), under the imperial sanction of Emperor Kanmu.

Yakushi Nyorai (Skt., Bhaisajyaguru Tathagata; Medicine Buddha)


Heian period, dated 993
Zensui-ji Temple, Shiga

Saicho had statues of Yakushi in each of the four ships on his way to and from China and prayers were said for a safe trip.

Tokyo National Museum Exhibition 2006

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Tendai Daishi (Ch. Zhiyi)

Curtesy of
(C) 　The Japan Times: Thursday, April 6, 2006
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20060406a1.html

An art born of Saicho's syncretism
By MICHAEL DUNN

This year marks the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the Buddhist Tendai sect in Japan, when Priest Saicho (767-822), posthumously known as Dengyo Daishi, received court permission to establish a school of religious study and training at Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hie to the northeast of Kyoto.

The purpose of the center was to train spiritual leaders, since -- according to Saicho's book "Essential Teachings for the Priests of the Tendai Hokke Sect" -- "one who can illuminate even one corner in the world . . . is a National Treasure."

In commemoration, a major exhibition, "Faith and Syncretism: Saicho and Treasures of Tendai," is at the Tokyo National Museum till May 7, showing sculptures, paintings, calligraphy and other religious objects selected mainly from temples throughout the country.


Standing Sho Kannon

Saicho's connection with Mount Hie dates from when he was 19 years old, at which time -- disgusted with the degenerate state of the Buddhist clergy at temples in and around the old capital of Nara -- he built a cottage on the mountain and devoted himself to the ascetic study of original Buddhist teachings. Two or three years later, he established a temple on Mount Hie, just shortly before the Imperial Court moved to Kyoto.

Thereafter, for religious, and possibly political, reasons he managed to attract Imperial patronage, and in 802 was sent to study at Mount Tiantai in southwest China.

There, Saicho immersed himself in the study of the Lotus Sutra (considered the ultimate teaching of the historic Buddha, but probably written sometime after his death), together with Esoteric Buddhism and Zen. On returning to Mount Hie, he unified what he had learned with local Shinto beliefs, and from this syncretism (meaning "the unification of various religious beliefs") he developed a new form of Tendai Buddhism more suitable for Japanese followers.

Despite the bewildering complexity of Tendai philosophy and practice, its central belief is that all sentient beings are bodhisattvas who can become enlightened Buddhas and gain entrance to Paradise. This revelation had a tremendous effect on Buddhism during the Heian Period (794-1185), as religious hope and opportunity -- which previously had been considered almost exclusive to the clergy and court ranks -- became accessible to everyone.

Saicho's syncretism was nevertheless far from final, and religious debate continued during his life and after his death. The Tendai sect spread throughout Japan, inspiring artists and craftsmen to produce a huge variety of adornments for temples and sculptural and pictorial images for didactic purposes.

It also provided an intellectual and spiritual environment that spawned further new sects with their own interpretations of Saicho's teachings, including Jodo and Nichiren -- which emphasized ritual, prayer and religious practice -- and Soto and Rinzai Zen -- which stressed a personal spiritual search through meditation. These sects in turn refined religious doctrines to suit their own ideals, and are still extant today.


Yellow Fudo

The original Tendai complex on Mount Hie grew in time to the size of a small city that, at its peak, supported some 3,000 sub-temples and an army of militant warrior-monks famed for challenging political and religious opponents at every opportunity. The complex is now a designated World Heritage Site and still serves as the Tendai headquarters for more than 19 million members who follow "the perfect teaching" of native beliefs mixed with the Buddhism that Saicho studied in China.

Most of the temples that can be seen today date from the late 16th and early 17th century, having been rebuilt after the daimyo Oda Nobunaga destroyed the Enryaku-ji complex in 1571 in an attempt to unite the country by eliminating all his rivals.

In the exhibition, several paintings, and a beautiful small wooden sculpture from the Kannon-ji Temple, portray Saicho himself. All show him full-fleshed and round-faced with downcast eyes, and just a trace of a furrow at his brow to suggest concern for the enormous job he shouldered. Other sculptural highlights include a standing figure of Kannon clutching a lotus bud from Enryaku-ji, with a serene expression and a third eye of inlaid crystal -- as well as a rarely revealed, seated, gilded Buddha of Healing from Zensui-ji Temple. Both of these masterpieces are being shown away from their temples for the first time.

The diversity of Tendai religious images is extraordinary and reveals an all-embracing reverence of Buddhas, bodhisattvas and guardian deities, as well as members of the native Shinto pantheon that were already long established. One of the delights is a 12th-century crouching monkey carved in wood that represents a "Messenger of the Gods of the Mount Hie Shrines."


Rokudo-e (The Six Paths)

Other images are more fearful, and serve to warn of what can happen to those who stray from the path. A Heian Period painting of Fudo Myo shows the muscled "immovable" guardian of Buddha's doctrine, wide-eyed and grimacing, sword at the ready, in strange uplighting to emphasize his otherworldly nature. And if his warning isn't sufficient, graphic scenes of Hell's torments should serve to nudge the criminally inclined back to the straight and narrow path.

Nevertheless, hope and salvation is the underlying message of Tendai, and one recurring painted image is that of the enlightened Amida Raigo swooping down on a cloud, surrounded by attendant deities -- sometimes accompanied by a heavenly orchestra -- to pluck a deserving soul from Earth "in the blink of an eye."

To fully understand the symbolism and meaning of the objects displayed in this exhibition would take lengthy study, and for the nonspecialist much would be lost in translation. Many of them are, however, artistically sublime and can be appreciated subjectively for their beauty alone.

Many of the exhibits are rarely shown at all, and some have been rediscovered as a result of a special study of Tendai by scholars at the Kyoto National Museum. A few are now designated "National Treasures," but for Priest Saicho, such words described not esteemed art works ranked by bureaucrats, but those early masters of Tendai who devoted their lives to trying to shed light in the shadowy corners of spiritual fate.
(C) The Japan Times: Thursday, April 6, 2006

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Mount Hiei (比叡山, Hiei-zan)
is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga prefectures, Japan. For much of Japanese history, Mt. Hiei has been off-limits to women.

The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first Japanese outpost of Tendai sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by Saichō in 788. Both Nichiren and Honen studied at the temple before leaving to start their own practices. The temple complex was razed by Oda Nobunaga in 1571 to quell the rising power of the Tendai's warrior monks (sōhei), but it was rebuilt and remains the Tendai headquarters to this day.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !




Temple Enryaku-ji (延暦寺, Enryaku-ji)
is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei, overlooking Kyoto. It was founded during the early Heian period. The temple complex was established by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana Buddhism to Japan from China.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Kiyomizu Kannon 清水観音 in Miyama town, みやま市
Fukuoka prefecture

One day in the year 806 the priest Dengyo Daishi Saicho, on his way home from China, saw a golden light east of the Ariake Sea. He climbed the East Mountain to find this sacred light deep in the forest. On his way he encountered great hardship and even lost his way. Suddenly, a male pheasant came by and showed him the way. Saicho found a shining "silk tree" nemu no ki 合歓木, carved a Kannon Bosatsu with 1000 arms into this tree and build a temple nearby.

This is the origin of the pheasant toy at the temple.

. Kiji-guruma きじ車 pheasant on wheels


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"The Path to Tendai Buddhism:
In Quest of the Eternal Shakyamuni"
at the Miho Museum, Autumn 2011

. "What is national treasure?" .

wrote Saicho (767-822), the founding monk of Tendai Buddhism, in his 818 "The Essential Teachings for Tendai Lotus Sect Priests," which he presented to Emperor Saga to bolster the standing of his esoteric order. His answer was pursuing the Buddhist path, and that
"shining light into one corner is itself a national treasure."


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kigo for the New Year

. Hatsu Hiei 初比叡 First View of Mount Hiei

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kigo for mid-summer

Dengyoo e 伝教会 (でんぎょうえ) Dengyo Memorial
Saichoo ki 最澄忌（さいちょうき）Saicho Memorial Day
... Dengyoo Daishi ki 伝教大師忌（でんぎょうだいしき）
choogoo e 長講会（ちょうごうえ）
sange e 山家会（さんげえ）

June 4

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kigo for mid-winter

. Hieizan hokke e 比叡山法華会
Great Ceremony at Mount Hieizan
Memorial day for Tendai Daishi, Tendai Daishi Ki
天台大師忌（てんだいだいしき）


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In the Daruma Museum:


鳥の巣も鬼門に立つや日枝の山
tori no su mo kimon ni tatsu ya Hie no yama

the bird's nest, too
in the unlucky direction...
Mount Hie

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue


The KIMON for the city of Kyoto was the double-peaked Mt. Hiei.
比叡山延暦寺 (Hieizan Temple Enryakuji)
. Kimon, the "Demon Gate" 鬼門



Sennichi Kaihoogyoo 千日回峰行
. The Marathon Monks at Mt. Hiei



Kobo Daishi, Kukai 弘法大師　空海

Daruma Pilgrims in Japan: Kentooshi Embassies to China　遣唐使, including Saicho


Folk toys and legends
. uzuraguruma うずら車 quail car toy .
Miayazaki, Temple Hokedake Yakush-ji 法華嶽薬師寺
Temple Hisamine Kannon 久峰観音

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