----------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: Total height 24cm, total width 15.5cm, depth 11.5cm
Material: Japanese cypress
Country of Origin: China
Kobo Daishi
Kobo Daishi was born in Byobugaura, Tadotsu County, Sanuki Province, which is now Zentsuji, and his given name was Kukai and his pen name was Henjo Kongo.
At the age of 18, he went to Kyoto to enter the University, where he mastered general education and wrote the three-volume Sankyo Shiiki.
At the age of twenty, he shaved his head and took the precepts of a novice, after which he was ordered by an envoy to China. At that time, he was 31 years old and stayed in Chang'an, where he met with Ajari Huiguo and received the Vajrayana initiation, and further completed the Taizokai initiation, receiving the position of Denpo Daiajari, learning the secrets of Shingon Buddhism, and inheriting the various esoteric Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist implements.
After returning to Japan, Daishi entered Kyoto and was welcomed to Mount Takao, where he was permitted to practice asceticism for the nation. He became the head priest of Todaiji Temple and then Otokuniji Temple, performed the bond-building initiation ceremony on Mount Takao, bestowed precepts on Dengyo Daishi and others, opened Mount Koya and established it as a place for the initiation of Zen training, and became the founder of the Japanese Shingon sect, leaving a great legacy for the nation and society. He was later given the posthumous name of Kobo Daishi.
The Master wrote a great many books, the main of which are The Meaning of Enlightenment in This Life and the Ten Stages of Mind in Ten Volumes, totalling over 150 volumes and over 200 volumes.