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.
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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, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Eisai (Yōsai)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Buddhist world
Islamic world
Jewish world
Scientists
Christian world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Rulers world
- Prithviraj Chauhan· 1166 CE–1192 CE
- Isaac II Angelos· 1156 CE–1204 CE
- Kaykhusraw I· –1211 CE
- Muhammad of Ghor· 1144 CE–1206 CE
- Qutb ud-Din Aibak· –1210 CE
- Al-Adil I· 1145 CE–1218 CE
- Minamoto no Yoritomo· 1147 CE–1199 CE
- Ghiyath ad-Din Muhammad· 1140 CE–1203 CE
- Al-Aziz Uthman· 1171 CE–1198 CE
- Jayavarman VII· 1122 CE–1218 CE
- Saladin· 1137 CE–1193 CE
- Genghis Khan· 1162 CE–1227 CE
- Frederick I Barbarossa· 1122 CE–1190 CE
- Iltutmish· –1236 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.