ABSTRACT
This sect, whose name signifies True Word, was founded in Japan in 806 by the Japanese bonze Kūkai, better known under his posthumous title of Kōbō-Daishi-the most celebrated saint of Japan. In 804 Kōbō-Daishi went to China, where he received the Shingon esoteric doctrine from the Chinese priest Houei-Kouo, whose disciple he became. It is said that the latter had received it from an Indian seer who held it from Nagarjuna, who, in turn, had received it from the wise Vajrasattva, whom Buddha himself had chosen to inherit the Law.
