SAICHO

posthumous name Dengyo Daishi born 767, Omi province, Japan died 822, Hiei-zan monk who established the Tendai sect of Buddhism in Japan. A priest at the age of 13, Saicho was sent to China to study in 804 and returned with the highly eclectic Tendai (T'ien-t'ai in Chinese) teachings. Unlike other Buddhist sects then in existence in Japan, the Tendai sect taught that there could be meaning and value in the external material world and that the teachings of the Buddha are accessible to all, not just to a select few. Saicho built his monastery on Hiei-zan near Kyoto. He soon became a favourite of the emperor and received the court's generous patronage, which made his monastery one of the most powerful centres of Buddhist learning. While the monks of the older Buddhist sects lived in the cities, Saicho required his monks to spend 12 years in seclusion under strict discipline on Hiei-zan. He foreshadowed later Japanese Buddhist trends in his reverence for the Shinto deities and his emphasis on the patriotic mission of Buddhism. Frequently engaged in polemics with other Buddhist leaders, Saicho was more significant as a leader and organizer than as a religious thinker.