were

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

s from

Mount Kōya is a large temple settlement in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan to the south of Osaka. In the strictest sense, ''Mount Kōya'' is the mountain name ( sangō) of Kongōbu-ji Temple, the ecclesiastical headquarters of the Kōyasan sect of Shingon Bu ...

who were sent to preach

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

around the country. They were the lowest caste inside the priests' hierarchy of the Mount Kōya temples, and traveled while

peddling A peddler (American English) or pedlar (British English) is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of good (economics), goods. In 19th-century United States the word "drummer" was often used to refer to a peddler or traveling salesman; as exem ...

for a living. They give title to famed writer

Izumi Kyōka , meaning "spring" or "source of water", is a Japanese given name and surname. It is sometimes translated as "fountain" in reference to natural springs and should not be confused with architectural fountains, which are called ''funsui'' (噴水) i ...

's most representative short-story. Former monks who turned to mischief were called '. Moreover, ' also eventually became a seasonal word (in the context of poetry) for turtles.

References

Shingon Buddhism Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism Japanese Buddhist clergy History of Buddhism in Japan {{Japan-reli-stub

See also

References