. kkai and the development of shingon buddhism 701
ceremony in 805. It is not known when Kūkai and Saichō first met.
Surviving letters between them, however, convey something of their
personal relationship and its deterioration, and indicate differences
in their attitudes to esotericism (DZ 5: 441–72). (The later editing
of these letters was undertaken by a Shingon monk in the context of
rivalry between Tendai and Shingon, and may therefore not offer an
accurate representation of the relationship; see Takagi 1999.)
Saichō steadfastly held that Tendai and Shingon were equal. He stated
in an 812 letter to Kūkai that “there exists no difference between the
One Unifying Vehicle [of Tendai] and Shingon” (DZ 5:4 56, trans. Abé
1999). He set up a study center at Mount Hiei with a two-part curricu-
lum for his students, one part focused on study of the Mahāvairocana
sūtra, and the other on that of the Lotus Sutra, which is indicative of
his effort to incorporate esoteric teachings into his school. In contrast
to Saichō’s approach, Kūkai uncompromisingly emphasized the supe-
riority of Shingon over all other forms of Buddhism.
By letter, Saichō frequently requested esoteric scriptures, commen-
taries, and Sanskrit textbooks from Kūkai to copy. In 813, Saichō asked
to be loaned a commentary Kūkai had imported, the Rishushakukyō
(Liqu shi jing; T. 1003). Kūkai refused, reprimanding Saichō
for relying on textual study alone in an attempt to attain understand-
ing of Shingon without the master-student transmission, an approach
he considered a violation of the precepts. This was another of the
differences that led eventually to a rupture between them, perhaps
precipitated by Saichō’s disinclination the previous year to devote
the three years of study Kūkai required of him for the conferral of
the denbō kanjō. Saichō had received earlier initiations in 812, but,
occupied with organizing his own monastic complex at Mount Hiei,
it seems he could not afford the time to study under Kūkai. Instead,
Saichō dispatched some of his disciples to do so, and to bring back the
esoteric teachings to be incorporated into his school.
A further source of discord was the defection of Saichō’s named
successor Taihan to Kūkai’s order, despite Saichō’s petitions for his
return. It appears that Kūkai and Saichō’s relationship ended in 816
as a result of their differences.^12 (Between 818 and his death in 822,
Saicho was engaged in extensive disputations with the Hossō school
(^12) For more extensive examinations of the relationship between Kūkai and Saichō,
see Abé 1995; Groner 1984b, 77–87; Akamatsu 1973; and Chen 2009.