Buddhism in Japan- Heian Period
The Great Teacher Dengyo

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            After the close of the Nara Period, the Great Teacher Dengyo, also known as Saicho, condemned the evil practices of Nara Buddhism and re-established Buddhism for the Heian Period.

Saicho (767-822) was born in Oumi Province. That area is now Ohtsu City, the capital of Shiga Prefecture. After entering the priesthood at 14, Saicho received the Hinayana precepts at Todaiji’s Kaidan-in at the age of 19. Thereafter, he went to Mt. Hiei, where he studied T’ien-t’ai’s three major commentaries on the Lotus Sutra and other works. In 788, he converted his hermitage into a temple, which he named Hieisanji. (The name was changed to Enryaku-ji in 823.) In 798, Saicho gave a series of lectures on a mountaintop on the ten volumes of the Lotus Sutra (the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra, plus one volume each for the sutra’s prologue and epilogue). Then in 802, he lectured on T’ien-t’ai’s three major commentaries on the Lotus Sutra at Takaosanji Temple. Emperor Kammu was so impressed with Saicho’s achievements that he sent him as ambassador to the Tang court in China to do further research. In 804, Saicho sailed to China to study T’ien-t’ai doctrine with two of Miao-lo’s disciples, Tao-sui and Hsing-man.

Saicho returned to Japan the following year, focusing his activities around the Lotus Sutra. He had a long-standing debate with a priest named Tokuichi from the Hosso sect, one of the six old Nara schools of Buddhism. While Saicho argued the truth and supremacy of the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra, Tokuichi asserted that the doctrine of the three vehicles was the Buddha’s true and ultimate teaching. Saicho refuted Tokuichi’s arguments in such written works as the “Treatise on the Protection of the Nation” (Shugo kokkai-sho) and The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra (Hokke shuku).

In 818, Saicho renounced the Hinayana precepts that he had received at Todaiji. The following year, he requested Imperial permission to build a Mahayana ordination sanctuary at Mt. Hiei, but strong opposition from the six Nara sects persuaded the throne to withhold consent. On the fourth day of the sixth month in 822, at the age of 56, Saicho died after transferring the Law to his disciple Gishin.

Seven days after Saicho’s death, Emperor Saga finally granted permission for the construction of a Mahayana ordination sanctuary. The following year, 823, the Emperor re-named Saicho’s temple Enryaku-ji. The Mahayana ordination sanctuary was finished in 827. In the seventh month of 866, Emperor Seiwa accorded Saicho the posthumous title, the Great Teacher Dengyo. Kukai and the Shingon Sect

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