The doctrine of interpenetration influenced the Japanese monk Kūkai, who founded the Shingon school of Buddhism.

This explanation was later challenged by Kūkai ( 空海, 774 – 835 ), who saw the kami as different embodiments of the Buddhas themselves ( honji suijaku theory ).

* 1784 ( Tenmei 4 ): Country-wide celebrations in honor of Kūkai ( also known as Kōbō-Daishi, 弘法大師 ), founder of Shingon Buddhism ) who died 950 years earlier.

According to this theory, the torana was adopted by Shingon Buddhism founder Kūkai, who used it to demarcate the sacred space used for the homa ceremony.

Of the two ships that arrive, one carries the monk Kūkai — recently ordained by the Japanese government as a Bhikkhu — who absorbs Vajrayana teachings in Chang ' an and returns to Japan to found the Japanese Shingon school.

Because Kūkai could find no one who could elucidate the text for him, he resolved to go to China to study the text there.

It was in 805 that Kūkai finally met Master Hui-kuo ( 746 – 805 ) the man who would initiate him into the esoteric Buddhism tradition at Chang ' an's Qinglong Monastery ( 青龍寺 ).

The year 809 also saw the retirement of Heizei due to illness and the succession of the Emperor Saga, who supported Kūkai and exchanged poems and other gifts.

The esoteric teachings would later flourish in Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kūkai ( 空海 ), who traveled to Tang Dynasty China to acquire and request transmission of the esoteric teachings.

It would be the Emperor Junna, who favored Kūkai and Esoteric Buddhism who would coin the term " Shingon-Shū " ( 真言宗 ; " The True Word School ") in his imperial decree which officially declared Tō-ji ( 東寺 ) Temple in Kyoto as a purely Shingon temple that would perform official rites for the state.

mikkyō ) to Japan from China, by Kūkai and Saichō, who founded the Shingon and Tendai schools.

Saichō ’ s public condemnation of Kūkai would later form the Seeds for some of the Criticisms leveled by the founder of the Nichiren Sect, Nichiren, who would cite that work in his own debates.

* Tenmei 4 ( 1784 ): Country-wide celebrations in honor of Kūkai ( also known as Kōbō-Daishi, founder of Shingon Buddhism ) who died 950 years earlier.

* Prajna ( c. 810 ), a monk and translator from Kabul, who educated the Japanese Kūkai in Sanskrit texts

* Prajna ( c. 810 ), a monk and translator from Kabul who educated the Japanese Kūkai in Sanskrit texts

Emperor Saga played an important role as a stalwart supporter of the Buddhist monk Kūkai.

On the same mission in 804, Emperor Kammu also sent monk Kūkai to the Tang Dynasty capital at Chang ' an ( present-day Xi ' an ).

Kūkai was born in a period of important political changes with Emperor Kanmu ( alt.

Kūkai petitioned the Emperor to allow him to carry out certain esoteric rituals which were said to " enable a king to vanquish the seven calamities, to maintain the four seasons in harmony, to protect the nation and family, and to give comfort to himself and others ".

In 823 the soon-to-retire Emperor Saga asked Kūkai, experienced in public works projects, to take over Tō-ji and finish the building project.

The new emperor, Emperor Junna ( r. 823-833 ) was also well disposed towards Kūkai.

This development resonated with the court: Kūkai said to Emperor Saga, " China is a large country and Japan is relatively small, so I suggest writing in a different way.

Kammu also sponsored the travels of the monks Saichō and Kūkai to China, from where they returned to found the Japanese branches of, respectively, Tendai and Shingon Buddhism.

Shikoku is also famous for its 88-temple pilgrimage of temples associated with the priest Kūkai.

Kūkai (), also known posthumously as, 774 – 835, was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or " True Word " school of Buddhism.

Records show that Kūkai was also busy writing poetry, conducting rituals, and writing epitaphs and memorials on request.

Saga gave Kūkai free rein, enabling him to make Tō-ji the first Esoteric Buddhist centre in Kyoto, and also giving him a base much closer to the court, and its power.

Shingon is the name of this lineage in Japan, but there are also esoteric schools in China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong that consider themselves part of this lineage ( as the originators of the Esoteric teachings ) and universally recognize Kūkai as their eighth patriarch.

Kūkai also systematized and categorized the teachings he inherited from Huiguo into ten stages or levels of spiritual realisation.

The city is the place where Kūkai ( also known as Kōbō Daishi ) was born.

" Saichō also endorsed the court ’ s bequest to Kūkai of the mountain temple of Takaosan-ji northwest of Kyoto as the first center for Kūkai ’ s Shingon school.

Their rapport finally terminated when Kūkai harshly condemned Saichō ’ s approach to Mikkyō as a transgression of the esoteric precept of samaya promise to keep the oral / esoteric teachings private, and Saichō retorted by denouncing Kūkai ’ s manner of instruction " Thus it was Mikkyō that brought Saichō and Kūkai together ; it was also Mikkyō that drove them apart.

Shingon founder Kōbō Daishi ( Kūkai ) was famous for his Japanese calligraphy.

Kūkai is famous as a calligrapher ( see Japanese calligraphy ) and engineer.

In response to a request from the emperor, Kūkai, along with other Japanese Buddhist leaders, submitted a document which set out the beliefs, practices and important texts of his form of Buddhism.

His book on Kūkai underscores Kūkai ’ s impact on 9th century Japanese society.

Ryuichi Abe writes: "... what makes the relationship between Saichō and Kūkai decisive in Japanese Buddhist history is not so much their cooperation as the manner in which it came to an end.

| 6866 Kukai || 1992 CO || Kūkai, Japanese buddhism monk *

Prajñā reportedly befriended the Japanese monk Kūkai, future founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, during his pilgrimage to China.

The Japanese Buddhist philosopher Kūkai drew a distinction between dharani and mantra and used it as the basis of his theory of language.

Kūkai, Saichō and other members of Imperial Japanese embassies to China imported the high to later Tang style.