| [Religious Sect] Tendai-shu sect (the head
temple of this sect) [Location] Sakamoto-honmachi, Otsu-shi, Shiga-ken [Kaizan] Saicho Shonin |
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Mt. Hiei Enryaku-ji temple
[Religious Sect] Tendai-shu sect (the head temple of this sect)
[Location] Sakamoto-honmachi, Otsu-shi, Shiga-ken
[Kaizan] Saicho Shonin
Brief Explanation History Saicho
Brief Explanation
The head temple of the Tendai-shu sect is called Mt. Hiei Enryaku-ji temple. Mt. Hiei is often expressed in these words, "Mountain means the mountain of Hiei." The beginning of the Mt. Hiei was in the late Nara era, when 19 year old Saicho built the Ichijo Shikan-in. After Saicho's death, the temple was renamed as Enryaku-ji temple.
This temple played an important role not only in Japan's Buddhism, but in politics and culture over a thousand years. After Saicho had come back from China and had founded the Tendai-shu sect, for approximately 1200 years, he stood in the highest position of Japan's religious world. From this temple, famous priests such as Honen, Shinran, Ippen, Dogen and Nichiren have appeared one after anther.
In this way, because many sects of the Japanese Buddhism were founded from this mountain, the mountain is called "Motherly mountain". In the late Heian era when it reached its highest peek of prosperity, the number of priests were said to be three thousand people. Though in this period, there were many priests who didn't conform to Saicho's ideal. Many tyrannical priests came into existence, and so the whole mountain was put to fire by Oda Nobunaga. After the fire, the Sho-do in the west pagoda and Ruri-do were the only remaining architecture, which miraculously survived through the fire.
The precinct in Mt. Hiei where trees thickly grow, gives out an atmosphere full of dignity, especially from the training halls of this Tendai-shu sect, and braces up the visitors spirits. Enryaku-ji temple is roughly classified into the upper mountain and lower mountain. Moreover, the upper mountain is divided into three parts: the east pagoda, west pagoda, and Yokogawa. Even though the whole mountain was burned down by Oda Nobunaga, later on, many halls were revived by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and are designated as national treasures and important cultural properties.
History
Emperor Kanmu prohibited the Dai (great) temple to move from the Heian-kyo, and positively tried to take in the new Buddhism. The Tendai-shu sect and Shingon-shu sect were founded as new religions. Emperor Kanmu, who never wanted the priests to interfere with politics again, welcomed these new Buddhisms.
Saicho
Please look at the "A HISTRICAL FIGURE" for information about Saicho.
