was the 18th chief
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
of
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 Mahayana ...
in the 10th century.
He is considered a restorer of the Tendai school of
Mahayana Buddhism
Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...
,
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 w ...
'' or "warrior monks" is questionable and seems to be a later invention.
[Adolphson, Mikael S. 2007. ''The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History''. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.]
Life
Ryōgen was born in the
Omi Province 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 by ...
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 ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
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
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 by ...
during their twelve-year training.
In 981 Ryōgen was appointed general administrator, the most important rank in priesthood.
Ryōgen also wrote a Pure Land text, the ''Gokuraku jōdo kuhon ōjōgi'' 極樂淨土九品往生義.
References
Further reading
*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
Buddhist clergy of the Heian period
{{japan-bio-stub
Tendai Buddhist monks