History of Relations of Asian Countries

Buddhist Monk Bodhisena in Japan
By Mukesh Williams

Some 1,200 years ago an Indian monk, Bodhisena, was pursuing
his dream of finding Bodhisattva Manjushri. His search for theBodhisattva led him to Japan where he realized his dream by meeting
Japanese monk Gyoki, the Japanese reincarnation of Manjushri. This
momentous meeting transformed Japanese thought and culture andestablished an eternal connection with India. It introduced Buddhist
and Hindu worldviews into Japanese cultural and political life,
enriching its civilizational heritage. Though much of Bodhisena’s
sojourn was forgotten in the religious infighting and raging
epidemics in Japan, his contribution remains in the spread of Kegon
Buddhism, the worship of Indian deities, the practice of tantric
rituals, cultural ceremonies, the Sanskrit etymology of Japanesewords, and the presence of old Buddhist temples around Japan. He
left an indelible mark on the Japanese way of thinking andunderstanding of the cosmos.

Sources of Bodhisena’s Life
Not much information is available on the life of Bodhisena in Japanand next to nothing in India. There are two surviving Japanese
accounts that shed light on his life and work. The first is by his
disciple Shuei, who wrote a biography under the title Nan Tenjiku
Baramon Sojo Hi or “Stone Monument for Baramon Sojo from
India”. The second is a part of the temple’s official record called
Todaiji Yoroku or “The Digest Record of Todaiji Temple” in which
Daianji Bodai Denraiki or “Introduction of Bodhi at Daianji Temple”
introduces Bodhisena.

The Proselytizing Spirit of Ancient India
Before the advent of Western civilization, Japanese society was
guided by values of Indian philosophy and culture. From the sixth
century onwards, India had developed a rich spiritual and religious
culture which included an understanding of the cosmos, the tappingof man’s inner world and conducting of meditative practices toaccess knowledge from the outer and inner worlds. In an attempt tospread this knowledge, Indians travelled to East and Southeast Asian
countries, from Myanmar and Vietnam to China and Japan. The early
men who travelled by ships to Japan were Buddhist and Hindu
monks well-versed in religious meditative practices and classical
Sanskrit. They were treated as religious and spiritual elites in Japan,monks like Bodhidharma and Bodhisena. Their elitist positions in a
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Author Mukesh Williams

feudal society allowed their knowledge to spread at great speed. The
religious iconography they brought to Japan spread through temples
in Japanese society.
As the political and cultural relations of the Tang Dynasty with
South and East Asia grew in the eighth century, maritime routes
between Canton, Palembang, and Sumatra Champa port andNusantara – islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans – also
developed. Travelling by ship in the eighth century was rather
perilous. Yi Jing in his Tales of the Hierarch Emperor Tang Taizong(641 AD) reports that as the Silk Road began to grow in the second
half of the seventh century, the maritime connection between India
and China grew stronger.
On these routes, Bodhisena and other Buddhist monks travelled.
On his journey to China in 733, Bodhisena met the priest Buttetsu, orBuddhasthira from Vietnam, and Dozen, or Daoxuan Buttetsu from
Tang China. Buttetsu could set stories from Indian mythology todancing tunes which became popular in Japan as ronyugau. The
jovial priest told him that Manjushri had left China for Japan.
Bodhisena would have been disappointed had he not fulfilled his
dream of meeting Manjushri. If he had not been fired by thismission, he would have baulked at traveling the treacherous South
China Sea on flimsy boats that often capsized.
It is believed that Bodhisena went to Mount Wutai to meet
Manjushri who was said to reside there. He stayed at Chongfu-si in
Fujian when he befriended Japanese priest Rikyo, who introduced
him to the assistant of Nakatomi no Nashiro, the 10th kentoshi, theJapanese Mission to Tang China. The kentoshi was impressed by theerudition and vast learning of Bodhisena concerning the Buddhist
sutras and invited him to Japan. Bodhisena invited both the priests
to accompany him to Japan.
The Japanese priest Genbo and poet Kibi no Makibi were also
travelling companions of Bodhisena on his journey to Japan andboth were impressed by his knowledge of Buddhism and Sanskrit.
Makibi was impressed by the Sanskrit system and used it to develop
the Katakana syllabary later on. Genbo was impressed by
Bodhisena’s arguments about Buddhist philosophy and his
persuasion to set up a Kegon school of Buddhism. Genbo was close
to the emperor, having saved his mother. The emperor had given a
substantial land grant and eight personal servants to Genbo. When
Genbo got into trouble with the wife of Lord Fujiwara no Hirotsugu,
the emperor sided with Genbo and banished Hirotsugu to faraway
Dazai-fu Kyushu Province as a vice governor.
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The three priests met the government officials in Dazai-fu. Whenthey reached Nara, Bodhisena had a momentous meeting with monk
Gyoki. All three priests received jifuku or financial support from theImperial Court.

Connected to three temples in Nara (Todaiji, Daiainji and Ryosenji),Bodhisena spent the second half of his life in Japan teaching Sanskritand developing Kegon Buddhism.

The World of Bodhisena
Bodhisena’s Journey from India to Japan
High caste Hindus believed that leaving one’s country wassamudrolanghana or violating the ocean, and led to the loss of varna.
It was kalapani or travelling over black waters and ultimately exile. It
would undermine their social respectability, pollute their caste andcompromise their food habits. The journeys of Buddhist monks
showed the different trajectories Buddhism took in spreading in Asia.
Indian monks were travelling to China and other parts of East Asia onproselytizing missions. Japan was communicating with India
through Chinese monks and later directly with India. Bodhisena’s
journey led him through India, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and finallyto Japan, creating a maritime history of the spread of Buddhist and
Hindu ideas. When he left Madurai, he knew that he could neverreturn to his homeland. These connections between Buddhism andJapanese royalty are impossible to miss. Bodhisena was abeneficiary of this connection.

Birth & Travels of Bodhisena
Bodhisena was born in Madurai in 704 in an ancient Brahmin clanof the Barachi or Pindola Bharadvaja. At an early age he left Madurai
for Chang’an and then went to Mount Wutai to meet the incarnationof Manjushri. At the request of Japanese scholars and diplomats,Bodhisena came to Japan hoping to meet the reincarnation of
Manjushri. He was warmly welcomed by the royal family of Emperor
Shomu. He was given the title of Baramon Sojo or “Brahmin
archbishop”, the chief of the Buddhist ecclesiastical order of Japan.
He always recited the Buddhavatamsaka Sutra. He knew tantric
rituals which he taught to other monks.
As we know, he came from a Brahmin family and converted to
Buddhism early in life. The missionary zeal of Buddhism made it
spread amongst commoners and elites quickly. But prominent
families found it hard to send their children to an austere monastic
life. Bodhisena would have faced opposition from his family to join
the Buddhist order. Buddhism itself was on the decline by the eighth
century. Bodhisena must have been truly convinced to join the
Buddhist order even at the cost of being an outcast.
He lived his life through teaching Sanskrit and the doctrine of
Mahayana Buddhism called Gandavyuta at three different
monasteries. On April 9, 752, he was the chief doshi or leader of
ceremonies for Kaigan-kuyo, or the making of the eyes of the
Buddhist statue of Rushana-butsu in Todaiji Temple. The ceremony
was attended by 10,000 priests and 4,000 dancers with the emperor
and his retinue of high officials and priests in attendance. But his
influence on Japanese culture went far beyond one ritual. Even today
he is remembered through the wooden daruma dolls which are usedby children to realize their desires by painting the dolls’ eyes.
40 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

The early eighth century, both in India and Japan, was a world of
religious intolerance and schism. Both in India and Japan, Buddhism
was seen as a new religion whose egalitarian philosophy was seen asa threat to the dominant religions of the time, namely Hinduism andShintoism. The Brahmin ruling classes of South India persecuted theJains and Buddhists, while in Japan the royal patronage accorded to
Buddhism incensed the Shinto ecclesiastical order as they saw theirpower whittled away. Bodhisena left a world of religious persecution
to enter a world of religious intrigue. His world was the world of
Vedic Brahmins. The Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu were the reigning
deities of the Pandaya kingdom. The Pandayas converted to Saivism
which became the dominant creed of Tamil Nadu. Buddhism revolted
against the Vedic sacrifices and Brahmin domination. It began tospread like wildfire. It had great appeal amongst the masses as itemphasized personal ethics
Photo: Author
as a way of life. The
Brahmins viewed the
popularity of Buddhism withalarm and mounted an attackon it. They tried toundermine its intellectual
strength by calling it
immature, unintelligent andclaiming that it lacked theability to evaluate the worthof other religions.
When Bodhisena came to
Japan he found himself in apolitical storm. It involved
The Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple
powerful Shinto priests,
Photo: Author

Todaiji Temple in NaraHistory of Relations of Asian Countries

Buddhist monks and political elites fighting for political influencewith Emperor Shomu. The emperor’s rule was a series of disasters.
There were earthquakes, famines, epidemics and economic crises in
his kingdom. He felt he had lost the favor of the gods and theBuddha himself. To create good fortune, he asked the populace,clergy and the powerful Fujiwara clan to build a great temple, Todaiji,
in Nara. Everyone contributed towards the building of the temple,
from stones and wood to design and finances. The emperor had
other plans apart from appeasing the Buddha. He wanted to shift thepolitical power from Shinto priests to Buddhist monks. In thispolitical cauldron Bodhisena was brought in to save Japan andstrengthen the power of Buddhism and implicitly of the royal elites
who espoused its tenets.
Bodhisena’s life was one of coincidences, in that he often foundhimself in the right places at the right time. But he also had amazing
skills as a religious practitioner. He could recite the Buddhavatamsaka Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra or Kegon-kyo, and knew theoccult Indian and Chinese Buddhism which had some magicalproperties. Hinduism has tantric practices to control others and fulfil
desires, and Bodhisena could have known tantric rituals. He taught
his skills to many Buddhist monks in Japan. Through Bodhisena theimpact of Hinduism on Japanese Buddhism has been profound.
Hajime Nakamura (1912-1999) believes that the Mahayana
Buddhism of Japan has more Hindu influence than the Mahayana
Buddhism practiced in other parts of the world.
Bodhisena became connected to Todaiji Temple in Nara throughthe monk Gyoki. Being close to the emperor, it acquired great power
and political importance. The temple acquired national significanceas prayers for national peace and prosperity were conducted fromthere. It gradually became the center for the study of Buddhist
doctrine and training of monks. The construction of the temple andthe subsequent ceremonies were so expressive that the Japanese
economy went bust. Being connected to Todaiji, Bodhisena played acentral role in proselytizing Buddhist dharma and Indian culture in
Japan. The book Todaiji (Kyogakubu, 1973) explains that Todaiji wasconstructed as the grand temple of Buddhism in Japan through animperial decree on March 24, 741. It was based on the philosophy of
the Konkomyosaisyouo Sutra. Its purpose was not to relieve thesuffering of a person or clan but to establish the independent
character of Japan against China and protect the country fromcalamities. The eye-opening ceremony was conducted to animate thespirit of the Buddha into the statue. This ceremony was never done
before in Japan and conducted for the first time by monk Bodhisena.
The ceremony was accompanied by songs, poetry recitals and ethnic
dances from Japan, Korea, China and Cambodia. The ceremony wasattended by the emperor and his retinue of 10,000 priests, highranking diplomats and lay people. By late afternoon the ceremony
was over. It marked the return of Buddhism to the East.

Bodhisattva Manjushri & Bodhisena
In his twenties, Bodhisena felt a communion with Bodhisattva
Manjushri, who passed away 1,000 years ago. In the Buddhist canon

Manjushri is the repository of wisdom and the closest disciple of
Gautama Buddha. Within no time Bodhisena became obsessed withthe thought of finding the reincarnation of Manjushri. Somefollowers of Buddhism told him that Manjushri resided on Mount
Wutai in China, the home of Bodhisattva Manjushri in the
Avatamsaka Sutra. Mount Wutai is one of the most sacred
mountains in China and known as the place where Manjushri
resided. Between 720-730, Bodhisena boarded a ship for Chang’an,
the capital of the Tang Dynasty. Chang’an in the eighth century was
one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, like Constantinople
and Baghdad. Over a million foreigners – Persians, Europeans andIndians – lived there and helped create wealth and prosperity in thecity.
When Bodhisena reached China he was told that the reincarnationof Manjushri lived in Japan. Bodhisena’s mission would have beenaborted, and he would have died in obscurity, but for a stroke ofgood luck. In 730 he met the 10th kentoshi, the Japanese Mission to
Tang China, Jihei Nobohito Hironari. The kentoshi was a devout
Buddhist and became fascinated by the erudition of Bodhisena. He
invited Bodhisena to travel with him and his delegation to Japan.

Reincarnation Ideas
The eight century in Asia was a time when new ideas about
reincarnation were being readily accepted. This led to a belief in
elevating certain individuals to the status of a reincarnated being. It
had a tremendous impact on shifting Buddhist lineage andcosmology first from India to China and then from China to Japan.
Bodhisena endorsed this shift by identifying Gyoki as thereincarnation of Manjushri whom he had met at Eagle Peak in India.
The religious, political and maritime conditions were right for
Bodhisena to come to Japan and create a powerful impact on its
cultural and political life.
The Gyoki Bosatsuden and Nihon Ryoiki refer to the popularity ofideas connected with the emergence of bodhisattva in Japan. This
became connected with the rise of the Manjushri cult in Japan whichshifted the center of the Buddhist world from China to Japan. The
belief that Manjushri will appear in human form before his devotees
was confirmed by the Manusri Parinirvana Sutra. It is in this context
that we must understand the momentous meeting of Bodhisena andGyoki.

Bodhisena’s Meeting with Gyoki in Nara
The Gyoki Bosatsuden tells the story of the encounter between thetwo monks, one Indian and the other Japanese. When Bodhisena
saw Gyoki from a distance he recognized him as the reincarnation ofBodhisattva Manjushri: “I have ventured from Kapilavastu to meetthe Bodhisattva Manjushri who resides in Japan.” This implies that acosmological shift took place in the presence of Bodhisattva
Manjushri from Mount Wutai to Nara. The bodhisattva left the Fiveterraced Chinese Mountain to spread the Buddhist dharma in Japan.
The Gyoki Bosatsuden confirms this conclusion by saying thatJapan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

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History of Relations of Asian Countries

Photo: Author
Bodhisattva Gyoki “was anincarnation of the Bodhisattva
Manjushri who resided in the
Qingliang mountains. In orderto spread the dharma to themasses below, Gyoki left his
lotus seat and entered his
mother’s womb.” The story ofreincarnation was now perfect.
Interestingly, the purity of the
Wutai cult of Tang Buddhism,
claiming Bodhisattva Manjushri
and Buddha’s presence in
China, was verified by thesutras. The legend of Seiryoji
The Memorial Tower for Bodhisena inserenity, Daianji Temple, Nara
shaka nyorai zo and Gyoki
Bosatsuden further confirmed
the new place of the Bodhisattva Manjushri and the Buddha in Japan.
In other words, it meant that Manjushri came to Heian Japan as
Gyoki. Through this reincarnation theory the center of Buddhist
cosmology and power shifted from China to Japan.
Gyoki brought Bodhisena to the emperor explaining thesignificance of the Indian monk’s arrival in Japan. The beleaguered
emperor felt good fortune arriving at last in the form of Bodhisena
and gave him important positions and a monastic home in Dhanji
Temple. The significance of Bodhisena’s royal recognition should not
be lost on us. The monks were deeply involved in the politics of thetime. A high-ranking monk from India, proficient in Sanskrit, theVedas and the Buddhist Sutras gave legitimacy to the power of theemperor who was the supreme protector of Buddhism. Bodhisena’s
elevation in the Buddhist order cut into the religious power enjoyedby Shinto priests who saw emergent Buddhism not only as new andforeign but a plot to politically marginalize them. To quite an extent
their fears were justified. The emperor felt that Buddhist practice was
the only way to save his kingdom from multiple disasters ranging
from the smallpox epidemic to famine.
The smallpox epidemic ravaged the country for only two years(735-737) but it wreaked havoc, wiping out one-third of the
population. As most of the farming communities ran away in fear,
there was very little crop cultivation and famine spread. The rulingclass was not exempt from these calamities. The emperor survived
the epidemic, but four of his elite ministers who belonged to thepowerful Fujiwara clan perished. In his sagacity the emperor
appointed a rival clan to break the stranglehold of the Fujiwara clan
on his power. The emperor gave more power to Buddhist priests,
including Bodhisena.
Bodhisena possessed the ability to impress others by his vast
knowledge of the Buddhist canon, his linguistic mastery of Sanskrit,and his grasp of tantric rituals to perform magic and beej mantras togenerate good fortune. His serious attitude, self-discipline andtenacity of purpose gave him a position of singular importance inEmperor Shomu’s court to transform Japan.

42 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

Photo: Author

The Guidepost indicating the Memorial
Tower for Bodhisena

Photo: Author

The Memorial Tower for Bodhisena, Daianji
Temple, Nara

Bodhisena Death & Influence
Bodhisena passed away on Feb. 25, 760, at the age of 57 and wasburied at Mount Ryosenji in Nara. It is said that after he passed away
he was found with his palms joined together and facing the west. A
Japanese stupa in marble in Ryosenji Temple marks his death withJapanese characters and Siddham script. It is perhaps a part of the
Sanskrit studies he initiated in Nara during his time.

Conclusion
Bodhisena led a truly cosmopolitan life traversing the globe andsettling down in Japan, changing its philosophy, and influencing its
linguistic heritage and religious iconography. He gave validity to
Buddhist dharma and the emperor as its supreme protector in Japan,
introduced Sanskrit in temples, and classical music and dance inJapanese courts, and shifted the cosmic center of Buddhism from
India and China to Japan. It is believed that he introduced Hindu
esoteric and tantric practices like the opening-of-the-eyes ceremony,
initiated children’s games like daruma and karuta, and demonstrated
the magical properties of phenomena through tantric rituals. Hisname may be unfamiliar to many today, but the impact of his work is
still felt by the Japanese in the script they use, the divinities theyworship and the games they play.

Mukesh Williams is a professor at Soka University, visiting faculty at Keio
University, consultant/news analyst for the BBC World Service, and St.
Stephen’s College Alumni representative and Academic Exchange Programs
coordinator in Japan.