9/22/2019 Eison - Wikipedia

Eison
Eison ( 叡尊 ) (1201–1290) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who
founded the Shingon Risshu sect.

Eison entered religious training when he was eleven years old,

studying initially at Daigo-ji and later at Kongōbu-ji. At the age of
34, while at Saidai-ji, he made the decision to become a fully
ordained monk. However, since the process of ordination in
Shingon Buddhism had been lost by this point in time, Eison
decided to self-ordain, and along with three companions
performed his own ordination ceremony at Tōdai-ji in 1236.[1]

After spending some years as a travelling priest, Eison returned to

Image of Eison by Zenshun at Saidai-ji (NT)
Saidai-ji and founded the Shingon Risshu sect. Saidai-ji prospered
under his governance, receiving increased donations and revenue
despite Eison's vows of poverty. In later years, Eison also accepted donations of land from the Retired Emperor
Kameyama. These generous donations may have been the result of Eison's response to the Mongol invasions of Japan,
in which he performed esoteric rituals to repel the invaders.[2] In honour of this, his disciples commissioned one of the
earliest examples of a juzo (portrait of a living monk), sculpted in wood.[3]

In 1273, 1275 and 1280, despite his advancing years, Eison made pilgrimages to the Ise Grand Shrine, where he
presented copies of the Daihannya-kyo Sutra.[4] After his death in 1290 he was given the posthumous title Kosho
Bosatsu (興正菩薩).[1]

See also
List of National Treasures of Japan (sculptures)
Byakugō-ji
Hannya-ji

References
1. Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (24 November 2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA280). Princeton University Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-1-4008-
4805-8.
2. David Quinter (12 June 2015). From Outcasts to Emperors: Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī Cult in Medieval
Japan (https://books.google.com/books?id=UPTjCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135). BRILL. pp. 135–136. ISBN 978-90-04-
29459-2.
3. Robert H. Sharf; Elizabeth Horton Sharf (2001). Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context (https://books.
google.com/books?id=PTXqBdtVk9EC&pg=PA122). Stanford University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-8047-3989-4.
4. Mark Teeuwen; John Breen (9 February 2017). A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine Capital (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=vtrWDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA77). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4742-7281-0.

Bibliography
Eison; Quinter, David (2007). "Account of the Origin of the Hannyaji Mañjuśrī: A Translation of "Hannyaji Monju
Engi" ". Monumenta Nipponica. 62 (4): 459–468. JSTOR 25066542 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066542). –
 via JSTOR (subscription required)

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9/22/2019 Eison - Wikipedia

Eison; Quinter, David (2007). "Votive Text for the Construction of the Hannyaji Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Statue: A
Translation of "Hannyaji Monju Bosatsu Zō Zōryū Ganmon" ". Monumenta Nipponica. 62 (4): 469–479.
JSTOR 25066543 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066543). – via JSTOR (subscription required)
Meeks, Lori (2009), Vows for the Masses: Eison and the Popular Expansion of Precept-Conferral Ceremonies in
Premodern Japan (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27643350), Numen 56 (1), 1-43

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