Kakuban

[1] Kakuban was born in Fujitsu-no-shō (Hizen Province, nowadays part of Kashima City, Saga Prefecture) about three hundred years after Shingon Buddhism was first founded by Kūkai (空海).

[4] By age 30, he received patronage from the noble families in Kyoto, including Cloistered Emperor Toba's permission to build the Denbō-in (伝法院) on Mt.

When he was thirty-six, Kakuban took leadership in the revival of the Shingon Sect, by attempting to unify the existing branches of Ono (小野) and Hirosawa (広沢).

Kakuban, in keeping with Shingon thought, felt that the regular nembutsu used in Pure Land Buddhist practices contained esoteric elements as well.

[1] Similarly, he analyzed mantras related to Amitabha Buddha in the Shingon tradition, in order to discover their hidden meanings.