Figure Buddhist traditions
Kūkai
空海 zh
Japanese Buddhist monk and calligrapher, the founder of the Shingon school (774–835)
- Child of Saeki no Tagimi and Tamayorigozen
- Dated 27 July 774 CE – 22 April 835 CE
A life on the record,
dated by its sources.
Roles, not beliefs
Overview
From Wikipedia, quoted unmodified under CC BY-SA 4.0; the article’s history is its list of authors.
Life
Affiliation
As a third party recorded it, often for one period of a life.
What this means
As the records give them: every row is a third party’s statement, not a self-description, and a role or an affiliation is often held for one period of a life only. An affiliation is not a belief, and this site does not ask anyone about theirs. For an office: which one, for how long, and where the records give an ordinal or the holders either side. Recognition of a tenure is never universal: contested lines appear as overlapping tenures rather than as one corrected sequence.
Family
The family of Kūkai
Parents, spouses and children as the records give them.
Documented family only. A teacher, a successor or a patron is never drawn in this tree.
The family as a list · 5
Family 5
What this means
A documented human family relationship. Not a succession mechanism, and not religious transmission.
Does not imply a right to an office · transmission of a teaching · a religious affiliation held by the whole house · continuous rule · a shared religious affiliation
Imported from Wikidata unless a tile says otherwise. Nothing here has been read by an editor.
Transmission
Teachers and students
Teaching passed from one person to another, in the direction of the arrows — not ancestry, and not succession.
What this means
In the direction the records give it. This is not biological ancestry and it is not institutional succession: a student who inherited no office still received the teaching, and an heir who received the office may have been taught by someone else entirely. It does not imply that teacher and student agreed.
Studied under 1
Religious context
What the records tie them to
Founded, supported, associated with — as third parties recorded it.
What this means
A founding is an attribution, usually contested, and not a claim that the tradition began fully formed. Patronage is an act, not a belief: it says nothing about the religion of a population, and nothing about the patron’s own practice in every period of a life. Domains are as sources record them — for a saint, usually a patronage — rarely exclusive, and not the same in every account.
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Named as founderShingon Buddhism
school of Buddhism in Japan -
Named as founderMount Kōya
Buddhist temple complex and settlement in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan - Named as founder
Tō-ji Temple
building in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderKongōbu-ji Temple
Buddhist temple in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderNiukanshōfu Shrine
Shinto shrine in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderShinsen-en
Buddhist temple and garden in Kyoto
Show all 25
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Named as founderEnpuku-ji Temple
Buddhist temple in Chiba Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderMotoyama-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 70 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage -
Named as founderTaiyū-ji Temple
building in Kita-ku, Osaka Prefecture, JapanHas references -
Named as founderDaishō-in Temple
Buddhist temple in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderJison-in Temple
Buddhist temple in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderMitaki-dera Temple
Buddhist temple in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan - Named as founder
Hotsumisaki-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Muroto, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 24 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage - Named as founder
Kongōfuku-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Tosashimizu, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 38 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage -
Named as founderKumadani-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Awa, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 8 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage -
Named as founderMyōō-in Temple
Buddhist temple in Hiroshima Prefecture, JapanHas references - Named as founder
Yakuri-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 85 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimageHas references -
Named as founderChōgaku-ji Temple
Buddhist templeHas references -
Named as founderIwaya-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Kamiukena District, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 45 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage - Named as founder
Kongōshō-ji Temple
Buddhist temple in Mie Prefecture, Japan - Named as founder
Ōya-ji Temple
Buddhist temple in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan -
Named as founderShiromine-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Sakaide, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 81 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimageHas references -
Named as founderShuzen-ji Temple
Buddhist temple of the Sōtō sect dedicated to Vairocana in Izu, Japan -
Named as founderTōchō-ji Temple
Buddhist temple in Fukuoka City, Japan - Named as founder
Unpen-ji Temple
Shingon temple in Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, which is Temple 66 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage
Connections
How Kūkai connects
Grouped by the kind of relationship, because a successor is not a son and a shared symbol is not an influence.
Affiliation 2
What this means
Association with a tradition or school. Traditions branch, overlap and re-merge; this is not a clean single-origin tree.
Does not imply a fixed roster · that every account of the tradition knows this figure
Imported from Wikidata unless a tile says otherwise. Nothing here has been read by an editor.
Sources
Sources and evidence
Where every statement on this page comes from, and how each one stands.
19 statements on this record
- 19 Imported Taken from Wikidata as it stands. Nobody here has read it. 2 of them cite only Wikipedia: one source, counted once.
Only this record’s own statements. What other records say about it is counted on theirs.
Three layers, three licences
- Text
- Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted, not merged
- Pictures
- Wikimedia Commons · each file’s own terms
Review
Not yet read by an editor here. Every relationship on this page is an import.
Disagreements are kept, not resolved, and a count of sources is not a confidence score.
Keep exploring
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