Kōkei (monk)

Kōkei (also Kogei; 皇慶: 977?–1049), the author of the ''

Enoshima Engi The ''Enoshima Engi'' (江嶋縁起) is a history of the temples and shrines on Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay. It was written in Chinese language, Chinese, the scholarly language of the time, by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei (monk), Kōkei in 10 ...

'', was an eminent

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monk. He is said to have commenced his career as a monk at the age of seven, when he climbed

Mt. Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...

Enryakuji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

Monastery, one of the centers of

Japanese Buddhism Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...

. Kōkei is credited with the building of the Enryuji (円隆寺) Temple in Tango (丹後; ancient name for region to the north of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

on the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

) during the period 995-998. In the year 1003 AD, he boarded a vessel in an attempt to travel to

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to study Buddhism, however, the vessel was unable to depart, and he gave up that ambition. Around 1026, he left Enryakuji and built a thatched hermitage in the Tanba region north of Kyoto at Ikegami (池上). It is said to have been the predecessor of the Ikegami-in (池上院) sub-temple. In reference to this hermitage, he was also known as "Ikegami Ajari" (池上阿闍梨: "The Master-teacher of Ikegami"). He remained at Ikegami until he received a dream sent by the guardian deity of Enryakuji, who commanded him to return to Enryakuji. He died in Enryakuji at the age of seventy-seven (or seventy-three according to other sources). As the seventh generation disciple in a direct line from

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and re ...

(圓仁), he was a learned monk who played an important role in the rise of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

sect. The ''

'', which he completed two years before his death, presented the goddess

Benzaiten Benzaiten (''shinjitai'': 弁才天 or 弁財天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯才天, 辨才天, or 辨財天, lit. "goddess of eloquence"), also simply known as Benten (''shinjitai'': 弁天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯天 / 辨天), is a Japanese Buddhist god ...

both as a protector of the state (in keeping with the

Sutra of Golden Light The Golden Light Sutra or ( sa, IAST: Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ), also known by the Old Uygur title Altun Yaruq, is a Buddhist text of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is ''The Sovereign King of Sutra ...

) and as a savior of the people, thus expanding her role. He is also the author of ''Zuiyoki'' (随要記), a treatise on a consecration ceremony in which water is sprinkled on the head of a disciple by a master, thereby upgrading the disciple's status. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kokei 970s births 1049 deaths Japanese Buddhist clergy Heian period Buddhist clergy