700 elizabeth tinsley
It has also been proposed that Kūkai remained in Kyushu volun-
tarily because he was not yet prepared to make available to other tem-
ples the works he had imported (Akamatsu 1973, 9–11). It should be
noted that Saichō had already been acknowledged by Kanmu’s court
as an authority on esoteric Buddhism because he had returned from
China equipped with knowledge of it in 805, before Kūkai. Mikkyō
was first recognized in Japan in connection with Saichō’s Tendai Lotus
school (Tendai hokke shū ). The tide turned in Kūkai’s
favor with the enthronement of Emperor Saga (786–842; r. 809–
823), who had an interest in Chinese culture, and he then entered the
capital.
Saichō’s Involvement with Esoterism
Because Kūkai and Saichō (767–822) traveled with the same embassy
to China and both introduced esoteric Buddhism to Japan, their
achievements have often been compared and their relationship some-
times characterized as one of rivalry. Saichō entered a monastery at the
age of twelve and shortly after ordination at age nineteen he retreated
to a small hermitage on Mount Hiei. He was dispatched by
Kanmu to China in 804 to bring back the Tendai (Tiantai) teach-
ings. He spent eleven months there, studying under Daosui , the
seventh patriarch of Tiantai, and Xingman , and learning medita-
tion under Xiujan.
Saichō’s encounter with esoteric Buddhism in China appears to
have been unanticipated; he met Shunxiao of Longxing temple
in Yue province shortly before his departure. Shunxiao con-
ferred esoteric abhisekạ on Saichō, but the exact nature of the esoteric
transmission he received remains unclear. It was probably a mixture of
various elements of the Diamond World and Womb World traditions
(Groner 1984b, 52–61; Abé 1995, 105–107; Chen 1998). His later ini-
tiation by Kūkai and requests for reading matter from him also suggest
that his knowledge of esotericism was limited and that the primary
purpose of his voyage to China had not been to pursue esotericism.
Prior to the journey, Saichō had read a commentary by Yixing on the
Mahāvairocana sūtra and was cognizant of esoteric rituals (Groner
1984b, 51–52), but it is unlikely that he saw esoteric Buddhism as a
tradition independent of exoteric Buddhism (Groner 1984b, xiii).
Upon his return to Japan, Saichō received the patronage of Kanmu
and conferred abhiṣeka on several Nara priests in a state-sponsored