BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 24710.4 The Heian Period (804-1185)
In 788, a young monk named Saicho (Dengyo Daishi; 767-822) left the cor-
ruption of the Nara monasteries and established a new monastery on Mount
Hiei, northeast of Kyoto, with the intention of creating a community that
would adhere strictly to the Vinaya. When the new capital was established in
the city in 804, Saicho won the patronage of the emperor, who sent him to
study in China. During his year there, he studied primarily T'ien-t' ai but also
other schools: Ch'an, Vinaya, and Chen-yen. On his return, he combined
these with Shinto elements into a single system, Tendai, which was thus
broader in scope than its Chinese namesake. This system was the first of two
distinctly Japanese attempts to amalgamate various Buddhist teachings into
comprehensive One Vehicle schools. Saicho kept his monks in seclusion on
Mount Hiei while they underwent a 12-year period to cultivate the three re-
quirements of "the true Path of the complete teaching": discipline, medita-
tion, and study. Some of his graduates stayed on the mountain, whereas others
left to serve the state as scribes, engineers, and teachers. Saicho campaigned to
get an ordination center, one using purely Mahayana vows, established on
Mount Hiei; due to the opposition of the Nara clerics, however, the center
was authorized in 827, five years after his death (Strong EB, sec. 8.4).
Mount Hiei went on to become the major monastic center in Japan and
remained so until its destruction at the end of the sixteenth century. In its hey-
day, it housed thirty thousand monks and contained more than three thousand
buildings. Its success as an institution, however, meant that it began to take on
a life of its own, ultimately betraying the vision of its founder. New elements
were added to the scholastic synthesis, to the point where the unifying thread
of the doctrine became more and more difficult to discern. Imperial support
focused the practice of inke and insei on Mount Hiei, engendering the kind of
corruption that Saicho had left Nara to avoid. The vast amount of wealth do-
nated to the temple required that some of the monks be armed to protect it
from thieves. These armed monks formed factions that then became involved
in disputes over succession to the position of abbot. Toward the end of the
Heian period, bands of these akuso ("vicious monks") conducted demonstra-
tions in the streets ofKyoto to press their claims on the government.
Perhaps the most radical-and negative-contribution of the Tendai
school to Japanese Buddhism was its misogyny. Women were banned from
Mount Hiei so as to prevent the sexual liaisons that had characterized the Nara
monasteries. Although this policy may have had its desired effect in the begin-
ning, in the long run it succeeded primarily in stigmatizing women, giving.
the impression that they were at fault for the original problem and were some-
how spiritually defiling and inferior. As for the desired goal of fostering
celibacy among the monks, the policy was ultimately a failure. Trapped on the
mountain by their 12-year vows, many of the monks began having sexual li-
aisons among themselves, which led to further complications in the
monastery's political life. Writers have frequently commented on the fact that
all the major monastic reformers of the following period-Eisai, Dogen,