Kukai and the Shingon Sect

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           Kukai (774-835), a contemporary of Saicho, was the founder of the Japanese Shingon sect of Buddhism.

After studying the Discourses of Confucius, the Book of Filial Duty and other predominantly Confucian writings at the age of 18, Kukai turned his attention to Buddhism, and eventually received the Hinayana precepts at Todaiji in 804. He was dispatched with a group of emissaries that same year to the Tang court in China, where he studied the esoteric teachings of the Shingon school under Hui-kuo, a disciple of Pu-k’ung (Amoghavajra), who was the sixth patriarch of esoteric Buddhism. Kukai returned to Japan in 806.

Kukai was particularly active in religious affairs in the years after Saicho’s death. After building Kongobuji Temple on Mt. Koya in 816 through an imperial land grant, he gained favor with the emperor and the nobility through his esoteric prayers. He was then given Toji Temple (Temple of Doctrine Kings, Guardians of the Nation) in Kyoto by Emperor Saga in 823. Kukai authored a number of works on Shingon theory, including “Treatise on the Ten States of Mind” (Jujushin-ron), and “The Jewel Key to the Store of Mysteries” (Hizo hoyaku), thus providing a firm foundation for the Shingon sect in Japan. After Kukai’s death, internal discord, as well as other factors, caused the sect to splinter, first into 12 groups that included six branches of each the Hirosawa and Ono schools, and then into as many as 36 or more distinct schools.

The Shingon sect is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Esoteric school, after the fact that the esoteric teachings of the sect spread mainly via Toji Temple. (Toh means ‘east’.)  The Tendai Sect Converts to Esoteric Buddhism

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