Ganjin Reaches Japan with the Returning Mission
Ganjin was an experienced teacher of Buddhist monastic discipline in Yangzhou. In 742, the Japanese monks Yōei and Fushō invited him to Japan, where the court wanted qualified teachers for ordination. Five attempts to cross the sea failed through interrupted departures, storms, and diversions. Yōei died during these years, and Ganjin lost his sight.
The successful sixth departure came with a Japanese diplomatic mission returning from Tang China in 753. The Tang Daiwajō Tōseiden, a biography written in 779, records that the mission's leaders first had the monks leave their ships because they feared a search and punishment. The deputy envoy Ōtomo no Komaro then secretly brought Ganjin and his companions aboard his own vessel. They sailed through the southern islands and landed in Satsuma before proceeding to Dazaifu.
Ganjin reached Nara in 754, accompanied by other monks and a collection of Buddhist images and texts, including works on ordination and monastic rules. The court placed him at Tōdai-ji and authorized him to teach and confer precepts. His arrival made the subsequent ordinations possible; it was not yet the founding of Tōshōdai-ji, which followed in 759.
