Tendai in the context of "Chūson-ji"

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū (鶴岡八幡宮) is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is a cultural center of the city of Kamakura and serves as the venue of many of its most important festivals with two museums.

For most of its history, it served both as a Hachiman shrine, and in latter years a Tendai Buddhist temple typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture. The famed Buddhist priest Nichiren Daishonin once reputedly visited the shrine to reprimand the kami Hachiman just before his execution at Shichirigahama beach.

Saichō (最澄; Japanese pronunciation: [saꜜi.tɕoː], September 15, 767 – June 26, 822) was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Japanese Tendai school of Buddhism. He was awarded the posthumous title of Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師).

Recognized for his significant contributions to the development of Japanese Buddhism, Saichō is most famous for introducing the Chinese Tiantai school to Japan, which he adapted into the Tendai tradition. Saichō traveled to Tang China in 804, where he studied the Chinese Tiantai school (along with other traditions). After returning to Japan, he founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei (near the capital of Kyoto), which became the center of Tendai practice and a major institution in the history of Japanese Buddhism.

Shinran (親鸞; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕiꜜn.ɾaɴ], May 21, 1173 – January 16, 1263) was a key Japanese Buddhist figure of the Kamakura Period who is regarded as the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school of Japanese Buddhism. A pupil of Hōnen, the founder of the Japanese Pure Land movement, Shinran articulated a distinctive Pure Land vision that emphasized faith and absolute reliance on Amida Buddha’s other-power.

While Shinran trained as a Tendai monk on Mount Hiei, he lived much of his life as a married Buddhist teacher unlike other Kamakura Buddhist reformers, and he described himself as "neither monk nor layman". Shinran's major work, the Kyōgyōshinshō (Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Realization), is a systematic exposition and defense of Pure Land doctrine. Shinran taught that liberation arises from the entrusting mind (shinjin) awakened through Amida's compassionate power, not from any merit or power of one's own. His interpretation profoundly reshaped the course of Japanese Buddhism and continues to influence East Asian religious thought.

Zenkō-ji (善光寺, Temple of the Benevolent Light) is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Nagano, Japan. The temple was built in the 7th century. It is one of the few remaining pilgrimage sites in Japan. The modern city of Nagano began as a town built around the temple.

Zenkō-ji was founded before Buddhism in Japan split into several different sects. It currently belongs to both the Tendai and Jōdoshū schools of Mahayana Buddhism, and is co-managed by twenty-five priests from the former school, and fourteen from the latter. The temple enshrines images of the Amida Buddha. According to legend, the image, having caused dispute between two clans, was dumped into a canal. It was later rescued by Honda Yoshimitsu. The temple was thus named "Zenkō," according to the Chinese transliteration of Yoshimitsu's name.

The Lotus Sūtra (Sanskrit: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit. 'Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'; traditional Chinese: 法華經; simplified Chinese: 法华经; pinyin: Fǎhuá jīng; lit. 'Dharma Flower Sutra') is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the main scripture on which the Chinese Tiantai and its derivative schools--the Japanese Tendai and Nichiren, Korean Cheontae, and Vietnamese Thiên Thai schools of Buddhism--were established. It is also influential for other East Asian Buddhist schools, such as Chan and Zen. According to the British Buddhologist Paul Williams, "For many Buddhists in East Asia since early times, the Lotus Sūtra contains the final teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha—complete and sufficient for salvation." The American Buddhologist Donald S. Lopez Jr. writes that the Lotus Sūtra "is arguably the most famous of all Buddhist texts," presenting "a radical re-vision of both the Buddhist path and of the person of the Buddha."

Two central teachings of the Lotus Sūtra have been very influential for Mahāyāna Buddhism. The first is the doctrine of the One Vehicle, which says that all Buddhist paths and practices lead to Buddhahood and so they are all actually "skillful means" of reaching Buddhahood. The second is the idea that the lifespan of the Buddha is immeasurable, and that therefore, he did not really pass on into final Nirvana (he only appeared to do so as upāya), but is still active teaching the Dharma.

Chinese Esoteric Buddhism refers to traditions of Tantra and Esoteric Buddhism that have flourished among the Chinese people. The Tantric masters Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra, established the Esoteric Buddhist Zhenyan (Chinese: 真言, "true word", "mantra") tradition from 716 to 720 during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. It employed mandalas, mantras, mudras, abhiṣekas, and deity yoga. The Zhenyan tradition was transported to Japan as Tendai and Shingon Buddhism by Saichō and Kūkai, as well as influencing Korean Buddhism and Vietnamese Buddhism. The Song dynasty (960–1279) saw a second diffusion of Esoteric texts. Esoteric Buddhist practices continued to have an influence into the late imperial period and Tibetan Buddhism was also influential during the Yuan dynasty period and beyond. In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) through to the modern period, esoteric practices and teachings became absorbed and merged with the other Chinese Buddhist traditions to a large extent.

In Chinese these traditions are also termed Mìjiào (Chinese: 密教; Esoteric Teaching), Mìzōng (密宗; "Esoteric Tradition") or Tángmì (唐密; "Tang (Dynasty) Esoterica").

Japanese Buddhist architecture is the architecture of Buddhist temples in Japan, consisting of locally developed variants of architectural styles born in China. After Buddhism arrived from the continent via the Three Kingdoms of Korea in the 6th century, an effort was initially made to reproduce the original buildings as faithfully as possible, but gradually local versions of continental styles were developed both to meet Japanese tastes and to solve problems posed by local weather, which is more rainy and humid than in China.

The first Buddhist sects were Nara's six Nanto Rokushū (南都六宗, Nara six sects), followed during the Heian period by Kyoto's Shingon and Tendai. Later, during the Kamakura period, in Kamakura were born the Jōdo and the native Japanese sect Nichiren-shū. At roughly the same time, Zen Buddhism arrived from China, strongly influencing all other sects in many ways, including in architecture. The social composition of Buddhism's followers also changed radically with time. Beginning as an elite religion, it slowly spread from the nobility to warriors and merchants, and finally to the population at large. On the technical side, new woodworking tools like the framed pit saw and the plane allowed new architectural solutions.

Kangiten or Kankiten (Japanese: 歓喜天, "god of bliss"; Sanskrit (IAST): Nandikeśvara), also known as Binayaka (毘那夜迦; Skt. Vināyaka), Ganabachi (誐那鉢底, alternatively Ganahachi or Ganahattei; Skt. Gaṇapati), or more commonly, Shōten or Shōden (聖天, lit. "sacred god" or "noble god"), is a deva (ten) venerated mainly in the Shingon and Tendai schools of Japanese Buddhism.

Although Kangiten (Shōten) in the beginning was (at least at first) negatively portrayed as the creator of obstacles and the leader of a class of malignant demons who obstructed Buddhist practice called vinayakas, though later tradition made an attempt to distinguish between the vinayakas and their lord, who became seen as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Kannon in Japanese) and/or the buddha Vairochana.