Koyasan Kobo-Daishi Legend

The Koyasan Kobo-Daishi legend records the founding of the Shingon head temple Kongobu-ji by Kukai (774-835). After studying Esoteric Buddhism in Tang China (804-806), Kukai received Mount Koya from Emperor Saga in 816 and opened Kongobu-ji. On the twenty-first day of the third month of 835 he entered meditative repose (nyujo) at Okunoin; the tradition holds that he remains in this state, and to this day a daily food offering, the shojingu, is brought twice to his mausoleum. The legend has three layers: study in Tang and establishment of Shingon doctrine; the founding of Mount Koya and its halls; and the nyujo cult around the Okunoin mausoleum. The hiko-sanko-no-matsu episode, in which Kukai is said to have located the site by casting a vajra from China, anchors the founding to a physical landmark. Primary sources include the Shoryoshu, Goyuigo, Shinzei's Kukai Sozu-den, and the Kongobu-ji Konryu Shugyo Engi; the Kii sacred sites and pilgrimage routes were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.