Biography of Saicho
Name: Saicho
Birth Date: 767
Death Date: 822
Place of Birth: Shiga, Omi, Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Gender: Male
Occupations: monk
Saicho
Saicho (767-822) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who bore the posthumous title Dengyo daishi. He was the founder in Japan of the Tendai sect, which he imported after a period of study in China.In 783 the emperor Kammu decided to remove his capital from the city of Nara, where it had been since 710. By training, Kammu was Confucian and generally anti-Buddhist. He was opposed to the great power that the six Nara sects had amassed. He had been particularly alarmed when, in 764, the monk Dokyo had almost succeeded in having himself declared ruler of Japan. Kammu's decision to move was based on his desire to preserve the prerogatives of the imperial court. To counterbalance the influence of the old, still powerful Nara sects on his new capital of Heian (Kyoto), which he founded in 794, he encouraged the founding of two new sects, which were to maintain a close relationship with the …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…to Japanese Buddhism lies more in organization than in doctrine. His writing tends to be heavy and repetitious, lacking the distinction of Kukai's. His most winning feature, however, is his sincerity, his desire to know the truth, not only as it was propounded by his own sect but by others as well. Further Reading Examples of Saicho's writings and an essay on his impact on Japanese Buddhism may be found in Ryusaku Tsunoda and others, eds., Sources of the Japanese Tradition (1958). There is no full-length biography of Saicho. However, Sir Charles Eliot, Japanese Buddhism (1935), discusses Saicho and the Tendai sect. An excellent book depicting the times when Saicho lived is Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (1964).Groner, Paul, Saicho: the establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1984.
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