page_title: Kūkai
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Kūkai / Biography / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Chigo Daishi (Kobo Daishi as a small child), Korinji, Imabari, Ehime, Japan 日本語: 絹本著色稚児大師像
context_page_description: Kūkai, also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi, 27 July 774 – 22 April 835, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist who founded the Esoteric Shingon or "mantra" school of Buddhism. Shingon followers usually refer to him by the honorific title of Odaishisama and the religious name of Henjō-Kongō.
  Kūkai is famous as a calligrapher and engineer. In legend he is attributed with the invention of the kana syllabary, with which the Japanese language is written to this day, as well as the Iroha poem, which helped to standardise and popularise kana.
context_section_description: Kūkai was born in 774 in present-day Zentsū-ji precinct in the Sanuki province on the island of Shikoku. His family were members of the aristocratic Saeki family, a branch of the ancient Ōtomo clan. There is some doubt as to his birth name: Tōtomono (precious one) is recorded in one source, while Mao (True Fish) is recorded elsewhere. Mao is generally used in modern studies.  Kūkai was born in a period of important political changes with Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) seeking to consolidate his power and to extend his realm, taking measures which included moving the capital of Japan from Nara ultimately to Heian (modern-day Kyoto).
  Little more is known about Kūkai's childhood. At the age of fifteen, he began to receive instruction in the Chinese classics under the guidance of his maternal uncle. During this time, the Saeki-Ōtomo clan suffered government persecution due to allegations that the clan chief, Ōtomo Yakamochi, was responsible for the assassination of his rival Fujiwara no Tanetsugu.  The family fortunes had fallen by 791 when Kūkai journeyed to Nara, the capital at the time, to study at the government university, the Daigakuryō (大学寮).  Graduates were typically chosen for prestigious positions as bureaucrats. Biographies of Kūkai suggest that he became disillusioned with his Confucian studies, but developed a strong interest in Buddhist studies instead.
  Around the age of 22, Kūkai was introduced to Buddhist practice involving chanting the mantra of the Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha (Kokūzō). During this period, Kūkai frequently sought out isolated mountain regions where he chanted the Ākāśagarbha mantra relentlessly.  At age 24 he published his first major literary work, Sangō Shiiki, in which he quotes from an extensive list of sources, including the classics of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. The Nara temples, with their extensive libraries, possessed these texts.
  During this period in Japanese history, the central government closely regulated Buddhism through the Sōgō (僧綱, Office of Priestly Affairs) and enforced its policies, based on the ritsuryō system.  Ascetics and independent monks, like Kūkai, were frequently banned and lived outside the law, but still wandered the countryside or from temple to temple.
  During this period of private Buddhist practice, Kūkai had a dream, in which a man appeared and told Kūkai that the Mahavairocana Tantra is the scripture which contained the doctrine Kūkai was seeking.  Though Kūkai soon managed to obtain a copy of this sūtra which had only recently become available in Japan, he immediately encountered difficulty. Much of the sūtra was in untranslated Sanskrit written in the Siddhaṃ script. Kūkai found the translated portion of the sūtra was very cryptic. Because Kūkai could find no one who could elucidate the text for him, he resolved to go to China to study the text there. Ryuichi Abe suggests that the Mahavairocana Tantra bridged the gap between his interest in the practice of religious exercises and the doctrinal knowledge acquired through his studies.
caption: Painting of Kūkai as a child
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