When Saicho first went to China he was followed, within a few months, by another young monk, who went at his own charges. Kukai was born at Byobu-ga-ura in Sanuki in 774. In 793 he followed Saicho to China,

and occupied himself with the study of the newly imported Shingon or Mantra, which had but recently arrived in China, by way of sea, from South India. He stayed longer in China than did Saicho. When he reached his home he found the latter in the midst of carrying out his plans of Buddhist reform, and engaged in fierce controversy with the monks of Nara and the Nanto. The controversy was on the subject of the Kaidan.

Kaidan is the name given to a platform or dais, which is used for the distribution of certificates and diplomas to successful candidates for the priesthood. Its existence in any particular temple implied the right of the authorities of that temple to confer Orders, and the Buddhist monk is as jealous of his Apostolic succession as is the highest High Churchman amongst ourselves. There had been no ordinations of monks in China before A.D. 250, previously to which the simple taking of the "threefold Refuge," in Buddha, the Law, and the Community of Monks had been deemed sufficient. The first regular ordinations had been held about 350, the custom having been brought into the country by an Indian monk of the name of Buddhoganga. These ordinations had been of the Hinayana type (mainly connected with the old Indian sect of the Dharmaguptas); they had found their way to Japan, where Kaidan had

been erected, at the Todaiji at Nara, in Chikuzen, and in Shimotsuke. They had also been much discredited by their connection with men like the ambitious and unprincipled Dokyo.

But a new succession had been inaugurated by the Tientai in China, and Saicho, having received the necessary authorizations, erected, at his monastery on Hiyeizan, a new Kaidan at which ordinations were to take place according to the Chinese Mahayana discipline. Saicho had probably his good reasons for taking so serious a step; but his action set the whole of the South into a blaze of indignation and excitement. In the midst of it, Kukai came back to Japan.

Which side would Kukai take? He was a Southerner by birth, for he hailed from Sanuki; by education, for he was at the time attached to one of the great temples at the ancient capital. A feeling of loyalty prevented him from turning against his old friends in the South. At the same time, he was, like Saicho, convinced of the necessity of reform, and he had, moreover, a great friendship for Saicho, who had received Baptism at his hands.