St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (May 2024)
Kūkai
Abstract
In addition to being the founder of the influential Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism, Kūkai (774–835) was one of Japan’s greatest calligraphers, a masterful scholar of pre-Tang dynasty classical Chinese literature, a ritual innovator, and an institutional builder who developed influential networks of relationships among Buddhist monastics, political leaders, and powerful aristocrats alike. Within the circles of Buddhist theorists and practitioners at a very formative early period in Japan’s history, his creative rendering of theological perspectives on contemplative ritual effectively galvanized existing practices with a novel esoteric Buddhist perspective on the means and ends of religious practice itself. His promotion of new approaches to the value of chanting scriptures, adorning sacred spaces, and imagining a more perfect world – within a highly articulated Mahāyāna Buddhist ‘mandalic’ vision of the cosmos – had a lasting impact on Japanese culture, religious and beyond. He became a prominent cultural hero for these accomplishments and others, some of admittedly questionable authenticity. Regardless, his saintly status has sustained centuries of reverence in the domains of pilgrimages to sacred sites related to his life, and a belief that he never died but entered a state of suspended samādhi (meditative concentration) in which he awaits the arrival of the future Buddha Maitreya. As one of Japan’s most celebrated cultural figures, Kūkai’s contributions in the religious sphere deserve substantive attention.
