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It was not to Dengyo, however, that Japan owed her most mysterious form of Buddhism, but to his contemporary, Kukai, remembered by posterity as Kobo Daishi. The traditions that have been handed down with reference to this great teacher's life and personality reveal one of those saints whose preaching and ministration have bestowed a perpetual blessing on humanity.
From that moment the triumph of Buddhism was secured." *Developments of Japanese Buddhism, by the Rev. A. Lloyd. The doctrine was called honchi-suishaku. Kobo Daishi is the most famous of all Japanese Buddhist teachers; famous alike as a saint, as an artist, and as a calligraphist.
The most celebrated of these religionists were Saicho and Kukai immortalized under their posthumous names of Dengyo Daishi and Kobo Daishi, respectively. The former went to Changan in the train of the ambassador, Sugawara Kiyokimi, in 802, and the latter accompanied Fujiwara Kuzunomaro, two years later.
However that may be, the reign of Junna, though not subjectively distinguished, forms a landmark in Japanese history as the period which closed the independent exercise of sovereign authority. When Junna laid down the sceptre, it may be said, as we shall presently see, to have been taken up by the Fujiwara. *The other two were Kobo Daishi, and Tachibana Hayanari.
Many of the pilgrims wear on the back, just below the neck, a pair of curious miniature "waraji" or straw sandals, because Kobo Daishi carried a real pair along with him on his journey. But this must suffice. The pilgrim habit of the Japanese is a strong proof of widespread religious enthusiasm, and throws much light on the religious nature of the people.
Hitherto penmanship in Kyoto had taken for models the style of Kobo Daishi and Ono no Tofu. In Kyoto, painting was represented by the schools of Koze, Kasuga, Sumiyoshi, and Tosa; in Kamakura, its masters were Ma Yuan, Hsia Kwei, and Mu Hsi, who represented the pure Southern Academy of China, and who were followed by Sesshu, Kao, and Shubun.
Who of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless discussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or Nietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain statements? In the Samyutta Nikaya we read: "Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness."
Gennosuké was immensely satisfied with his calligraphy, and was waiting for compliments. "But this, this is beautifully written. It is worthy of Kobo Daishi!" said the younger man, naming a famous scholar priest of the Middle Ages. He was admiring a scroll on which four characters were written in a perpendicular row. They signified, "From the midst of tranquillity I survey the world."
But I want to say right here; Kobo Daishi, who founded this monastery in the distant ages and built a temple to his own virtues, may have been a saint, but he was not much of a gentleman!
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