killed as many monks, women, and children as they could
find. Tendai influence was eventually reestablished, though
never to the extent it had enjoyed earlier, by Tenkai (1536?–
1643), who obtained the support of Tokugawa Ieyasu
(1542–1616), the first military ruler of the Tokugawa peri-
od. Tenkai gathered many of the surviving Tendai texts, re-
instituted the Tendai educational system and its associated
rituals, established Nikko ̄ as a mausoleum for Ieyasu and his
descendants, and founded KanDeiji as the equivalent of
Mount Hiei in the new capital, Tokyo.
During the middle of the Tokugawa period, a move-
ment to reform the Tendai school by changing the ordina-
tion system was begun by Myo ̄ryu ̄ (1637–1690), a monk
who had first been ordained in the Rinzai Zen tradition and
then converted to Tendai after reading through the Buddhist
canon. Myo ̄ryu ̄ noted that Saicho ̄ had stated that bodhisattva
monks should first be ordained with the Maha ̄ya ̄na bodhi-
sattva precepts from the Brahma ̄’s Net Su ̄tra (Fanwangjing),
a Chinese Buddhist apocryphal text. According to Saicho ̄,
monks were then to be ordained with the 250 precepts used
by all monks in East Asia from Four-Part Vinaya (Sifenlu)
after they had finished twelve years of practice on Mount
Hiei. Until that point almost all Tendai monks had rejected
the Sifenlu precepts. Myo ̄ryu ̄ and his disciple Reiku ̄ (1652–
1739) gained the patronage of ordained members of the im-
perial family and the military government to advance their
case. Another monk, Shinryu ̄ (b. 1711), eventually criticized
the reform movement, and the military government ordered
that all Tendai monks were to be ordained with only the bo-
dhisattva precepts. Even though the effort to reinstitute
H ̄ınaya ̄na ordinations failed, other parts of the reform move-
ment succeeded, including a 1689 prohibition on an Esoteric
ritual and oral transmission that affirmed that all desire, just
as it is, was ultimate truth (homage to the profound tenet,
genshi kimyo ̄dan). The decline of hongaku thought and a re-
newed emphasis on Chinese Tiantai doctrine followed.
Following World War II and the installation of laws al-
lowing more freedom to religion, Tendai split into approxi-
mately twenty groups, largely because of institutional and
economic reasons, the most important of which is still called
Tendaishu ̄. It maintains two colleges that contribute to the
training of its monks, Taisho ̄ University in Tokyo and Eizan
gakuin at the foot of Mount Hiei. In addition, a few monks
still practice assiduously on Mount Hiei, with an occasional
monk undergoing twelve years of seclusion at the Pure Land
Chapel (Jo ̄doin), the site of Saicho ̄’s mausoleum. Others cir-
cumambulate Mount Hiei (kaiho ̄gyo ̄), treating it like a
man:d:ala, for periods ranging up to seven years. Those who
complete the seven-year practice (an average of one person
a decade) are lionized as living buddhas. The Tendai con-
stantly walking meditation, a continuous ninety-day circu-
mambulation of Amida Buddha, has also been revived. Since
the 1990s, women have been playing a more significant role,
receiving training and occasionally becoming abbesses of
temples. On a more popular level, the school has instituted
a campaign with the slogan “Light up your corner,” based
on a quotation from one of Saicho ̄’s works. It also sponsored
a number of interfaith peace conferences while Yamada Etai
(1895–1994) was head of the school.Like other schools of Japanese Buddhism, modern Ten-
dai is beset by a number of basic problems. The school must
figure out a means to educate and inspire young monks,
many of whom become monks because they come from tem-
ple families, not because they are excited about Buddhism.
Poor temples in the country need better support and are
short of monks. The role of women, both temple wives and
nuns, is not clear. Tendai needs to find better ways of reach-
ing out to both current and potential parishioners. Tendai
programs in social welfare are not clearly defined. Such prob-
lems are not unique to Tendai, but their solutions will cer-
tainly affect the future of the school.DOCTRINAL ISSUES. After Saicho ̄ returned from China, he
wrote a document describing the lineages of the teachings he
received in China: Tendai, Esoteric Buddhism, bodhisattva
precepts, and Chan. Besides these, several other doctrinal
movements came to play important roles within Tendai, in-
cluding Pure Land, Shinto (Sanno ̄ Shinto ̄), and an extension
of Tendai doctrine that is referred to by twentieth-century
scholars as “original enlightenment thought” (hongaku shiso ̄).
In the following discussion these are surveyed under the ru-
brics of Tendai and original enlightenment, Esoteric Bud-
dhism, bodhisattva precepts, and Pure Land.Tendai doctrine. Chinese Tiantai doctrine regarded
the Lotus Su ̄tra as the Buddha’s highest teaching. In fact, the
school was sometimes called the Tendai Hokkeshu ̄ (Tendai
Lotus school). This su ̄ tra was used to harmonize the various
teachings within Buddhism (kaie), demonstrating that all
other forms of Buddhism were expedient means leading up
to the universal teaching of One-vehicle to salvation. Howev-
er, the Lotus Su ̄tra could also be used to reject expedient
teachings in favor of the ultimate teaching (haigon ryu ̄jitsu).
Much of later Tendai doctrinal history consists of how mo-
nastic scholars combined other Buddhist teachings with
those of the Lotus Su ̄tra, using both the inclusive and the ex-
clusive approaches to expedient teachings.The majority of Saicho ̄’s writings were polemical, de-
fending his position against the claims of Hosso ̄ monks.
When he died at the comparatively young age of fifty-five,
he had not systematized his views on a variety of issues, in-
cluding the interpretation of the bodhisattva precepts and
how Esoteric and Exoteric Buddhism had the same purport.
His successor, Gishin, who had accompanied Saicho ̄ to
China, did not even mention these issues in a handbook of
Tendai doctrine he submitted to the court. Some of Saicho ̄’s
disciples tried to remedy these deficiencies by writing sets of
questions to their Chinese counterparts (To ̄ketsu), but in
many cases the two sides seemed to be talking past each
other. The unfinished quality of Saicho ̄’s positions turned
out to work in Tendai’s favor. The ninth century was marked9076 TENDAISHU ̄