Eisai (Yōsai)
1141 CE–1215 CE · Mount Hiei (Enryaku-ji)
1141–1215 CE
Eisai (Yōsai, 1141–1215 CE) is traditionally credited with transmitting Rinzai (Chinese Linji) Zen to Japan. Born into a priestly family in Bizen and trained on Mount Hiei, he made two journeys to China, studying Tiantai and receiving Rinzai Chan transmission, and on returning founded Kennin-ji in Kyoto (1202), where he taught Zen alongside Tendai and esoteric elements. He is also remembered for promoting tea, both as a monastic aid and in a treatise on its benefits. His career is well documented.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
Mount Hiei (Enryaku-ji)
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: born into a priestly family at the Kibitsu shrine in Bizen and ordained young at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei.
About Mount Hiei (Enryaku-ji)
Mount Hiei, overlooking Kyoto in Japan, is the site of Enryaku-ji, the head temple of the Tendai school founded by Saichō in the early ninth century. As a major centre of learning it trained many of the founders of later Japanese Buddhist schools — including Hōnen, Shinran, Dōgen, Eisai and Nichiren, all of whom studied there before establishing their own movements.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Eisai (Yōsai)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
Jewish world
Christian world
Graeco-Roman world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.