Kukai 774 – 835

Kukai, posthumously known as Kobo Daishi, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, poet, and the founder of the esoteric Shingon school. After studies in China under the Tantric master Hui-kuo, he returned to Japan and established a monastic complex on Mount Koya that remains the spiritual center of Shingon. His Ten Stages of the Development of Mind set out a hierarchical view of the religious traditions known to him, with esoteric Buddhism at the summit, while his treatises on language and phonetic theory shaped Japanese intellectual culture for centuries. He is one of the most revered figures in Japanese religion.