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Updated: June 27, 2025
It paved the way for the usurpation of the government by the unscrupulous soldier, "the man on horseback," who was destined to rule Japan for seven hundred years, while the throne and its occupant were in the shadow. In A.D. 805 the famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were introduced.
Now first we meet with the Buddhas of Contemplation, and with a creed which seems to embody a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. Such, in briefest outline, was the doctrine taught at the close of the sixth century by a Chinese bonze at the monastery of Tientai, and carried thence to Japan two hundred years later by Dengyo, who established the Tendai sect on Mount Hiei near Kyoto.
Dengyo did not borrow blindly; he adapted, and thus the Tendai creed, as taught at Hiei-zan, became in reality "a system of Japanese education, fitting the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese propagandist on the pre-existing foundations of earlier sects." "The comprehensiveness of the Tendai system caused it to be the parent of many schisms.
It became "a system of Japanese eclecticism, fitting the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese sage to the pre-existing foundations of earlier sects."* This is not the place to discuss details of religious doctrine, but the introduction of the Tendai belief has historical importance.
Out of it came all the large sects, with the exception of the Shingon," to be presently spoken of. "On the other hand, this comprehensiveness ensured the success of the Tendai sect.
For Montoku's first born, Prince Koretaka, seeing himself deprived of his birthright, went into seclusion in Ono at the foot of Mount Hiei, and there, in the shadow of the great Tendai monastery, devoted his days to composing verselets.
Though without doubt not original with him, yet he must have had in some degree both philosophical ability and interest in order to appreciate their force and to seek their solution. In conversation not long since with a Buddhist priest of the Tendai sect, after responding to his request for a criticism of Buddhism, I asked him for a similarly frank criticism of Christianity.
As both had already given aid to his enemies, it was easy to find a cause for quarrel; and he first proceeded against the Tendai. The campaign was conducted with ferocious vigour; the monastery-fortresses of Hiyei-san were stormed and razed, and all the priests, with all their adherents, put to the sword no mercy being shown even to women and children.
Unquestionably the offspring of a great mind, this Shingon system, with its mysterious possibilities and its lofty morality, appealed strongly to the educated and leisured classes in Kyoto during the peaceful Heian epoch, while for the illiterate and the lower orders the simpler canons of the Tendai had to suffice.
By nature Nobunaga was not cruel; but his policy was ruthless, and he knew when and why to strike hard. The power of the Tendai sect before this massacre may be imagined from the fact that three thousand monastery buildings were burnt at Hiyei-san.
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