Ennin

Ennin

(born 794, Tsuga district, Shimotsuke province, Japan—died Feb. 24, 864, Japan) Japanese Buddhist who founded the Sammon branch of the Tendai (Tiantai) sect. Educated in the Enryaku-ji monastery near Kyoto, he was a disciple of Saicho. He spent nine years studying Buddhism in China, returning home in AD 847 with 559 volumes of Chinese Buddhist texts and a system of musical notation for religious chants that is still used in Japan. He introduced to Japanese Buddhism the practice of chanting the name of Amida (Amitabha) as a route to rebirth in Amida's paradise. He also established Tendai esotericism. He became chief priest of his order in 854, and his teachings were influential in Japanese Buddhism for centuries.