TendaishŪ
TENDAISHŪ. The Japanese Tendai School takes its name from the Tiantai (Japanese, Tendai) School in China, which was located on Mount Tiantai. Japanese monks carefully studied the Tiantai texts they obtained in China, but after the ninth century CE relatively little exchange occurred between the Chinese and Japanese schools. As a result, Japanese Tendai developed in ways that were frequently distinct from its Chinese antecedent. In the following paragraphs the institutional development of the school is discussed, followed by some of its doctrinal developments.
Institutional History
Tendai was initially based on writings by the Tiantai exegetes Zhiyi (538–597 CE) and Zhanran (711–782 CE) that had been brought to Japan by Jianzhen (Japanese, Ganjin, 688–763 CE). The de facto founder of the school, Saichō (767–822 CE, also known by his posthumous title Dengyō daishi) was able to obtain these texts while he was practicing on Mount Hiei and was so impressed by them that he traveled to China to obtain better copies. When Saichō returned from China in 805 CE, he found that the court was more interested in the Esoteric Buddhist (mikkyō) doctrines he brought back than in Tiantai doctrine. As a reward for performing Esoteric rituals to heal the emperor's illness, Saichō was awarded two yearly ordinands by the court; this marks the establishment of the school.
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