Kūkai: From Shikoku to China and Mount Kōya

Kūkai was born in 774 on the island of Shikoku, in the precinct of what is now Zentsū-ji. He founded the temple himself in 807, on the spot where he was born. Today Zentsū-ji is temple 75 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, and its Mieidō Hall stands over his birthplace. By 791 he had left Sanuki province for Nara, then the capital, to study at the government university.

Visitor guidance: Zentsū-ji is an active temple in Kagawa, and a stop on the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

In 804 Kūkai joined a government expedition to China. His party was sent on to Chang'an, today's Xi'an, capital of the Tang dynasty. In 805 he met the monk Huiguo at Qinglong Temple, who gave him the first level of esoteric initiation and, before dying, told him to return to Japan and spread the teachings. The original temple was lost, and its site was found again in 1963. Visitors now find a Monument of Kūkai from 1982 and memorial halls to Huiguo and Kūkai.

Visitor guidance: The rebuilt Qinglong Temple in Xi'an has memorial halls to Huiguo and Kūkai and a monument to Kūkai.

Kūkai arrived back in Japan in 806. The court's response was an order to live at Takao-san temple, now Jingo-ji, in the hills near Kyoto. It became his headquarters for the next 14 years. Jingo-ji still holds a list in his hand from 812, naming the people and deities who received the abhisheka initiation there. The temple has sixteen National Treasures.

Visitor guidance: Jingo-ji lies on Mount Takao, northwest of central Kyoto.

In 816 Emperor Saga accepted Kūkai's request for a mountain retreat at Mount Kōya, and the ground was consecrated in 819 with seven days of rituals. His vision was a mandala in the landscape: the central plateau as the Womb Realm, the surrounding peaks as petals of a lotus. Today the town has a religious studies university and 120 sub-temples, many offering lodging to pilgrims.

Location precision: Mount Kōya is a whole temple settlement, and the sources do not name the exact spot of the first consecration; the pin marks the mountain.

Visitor guidance: Many sub-temples offer lodging to pilgrims.

In 823 Emperor Saga asked Kūkai, who had experience with public works, to take over Tō-ji and finish building it. An imperial decree then gave him exclusive use of the temple for the Shingon school. It stands near Ōmiya and Kujō streets, southwest of Kyoto Station, and many religious services for Daishi are held in its Miei-dō.

Visitor guidance: Tō-ji is southwest of Kyoto Station, near Ōmiya and Kujō streets.

Kūkai died at midnight on the 21st day of the third month of 835, aged 62. In keeping with his will he was not cremated but entombed on the eastern peak of Mount Kōya. Popular belief holds that he entered an eternal meditation, and monks bring him meals twice a day. A cobblestone path passes more than 200,000 graves to his mausoleum at Okunoin. The path ends at the Tōrō-dō, the main hall of worship; the mausoleum behind it is closed to the public.

Visitor guidance: Okunoin is reached by a walkway through the cemetery; the mausoleum behind the Tōrō-dō hall is not open to the public.