was the 18th chief

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

Enryaku-ji 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 Mahayan ...

in the 10th century. He is considered a restorer of the Tendai school of Mahayana Buddhism, and credited for reviving Enryaku-ji.English display at the TNM His supposed role as a precursor of the ''

sōhei were Buddhist warrior monks of both classical and feudal Japan. At certain points in history, they held considerable power, obliging the imperial and military governments to collaborate. The prominence of the ''sōhei'' rose in parallel wit ...

'' or "warrior monks" is questionable and seems to be a later invention (see Adolphson 2007).

Life

Ryōgen was born in the

Omi Province is a hereditary noble title (''kabane'') of ancient Japan. It was given to the descendants of the Imperial Family before Emperor Kōgen. Along with ''Muraji'', ''Omi'' was reserved for the head of the most powerful clans during the Kofun perio ...

in 912, and he began his practice at

Mount 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 b ...

in 923, becoming chief abbot in 966. Over the course of the 10th century, there had been a number of disputes between Enryaku-ji and the other temples and shrines of the

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, 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, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

area, many of which were resolved by force. In 970, Ryōgen formed a small army to defend Enryaku-ji and to serve its interests in these disputes. Records are not fully clear on whether this army consisted of hired mercenaries, or, as would be the case later, trained monks. Most likely, this first temple standing army was a mercenary group, separate from the monks, since Ryōgen forbade monks from carrying weapons. In addition to the prohibition on carrying weapons, Ryōgen's monks were subject to a list of 26 articles released by Ryōgen in 970; they were forbidden from covering their faces, inflicting corporal punishment, violently interrupting prayer services, or leaving

during their twelve-year training. In 981 Ryōgen was appointed general administrator, the most important rank in priesthood.

References

*Adolphson, Mikael S. 2007. ''The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History''. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. *Groner, Paul. 2002. ''Ryōgen and Mount Hiei: Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century''. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. *Turnbull, Stephen (2003). ''Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603''. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. *Yamada Etai (1959): ''Ganzan daishi''. Tokyo: Daiichi Shobō.

External links

Japanese religious leaders 912 births 985 deaths Tendai Japanese Buddhist clergy Heian period Buddhist clergy {{japan-bio-stub