ENCHIN (814/5–891/2), posthumously known as Chishō Daishi, was the sixth patriarch (zasu) of the Tendai school of Japanese Buddhism and one of the so-called nittō-hakke, or "eight (Esoteric) masters who studied in China." Enchin, a distant cousin of Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi, 774–835), founder of the Shingon sect, was born on the island of Shikoku. From the age of fifteen he studied under Gishin, a direct disciple of Saichō (Dengyō Daishi, 767–822), founder of the Tendai sect, at the Enryakuji on Mount Hiei, the center of the Tendai monastic establishment.

Enchin was sent by the government to China, where he studied from 853 to 859, first on Mount Tiantai (center of the Tiantai sect), and then at the Qinglong Monastery in the capital, Chang'an, thus absorbing the teachings and practices of both Tendai and Esoteric Buddhism. Upon his return to Japan he was sponsored by the court (he established an initiation...