GyÅki
Gyoki or Gyōgi (Japanese行 基; * 668 in the province of Kawachi, † 749 ) was a Buddhist monk of the Japanese Hosso shū. He is especially known for his charitable activities in the common people.
Gyoki, who came from a family naturalized Korean nobleman from Baekje, since he was 15, spent his life to Buddhist temples, first at Asuka- dera, then from 685 at the Yakushi -ji, where he ordained 24 and among other students of Dosho ( 629-700 ) and Gien (义 渊; 644-728 ) was.
In the year 704 Gyōkis ill mother, after which he left the Yakushi -ji, and returned home, where he been converted into the apartment in a temple. He later moved with his mother in a hermitage on Mount Ikoma -yama, where she lived until her death together. Then Gyoki began to travel on their own as a preacher and missionary throughout the country.
In the course of his travels Gyoki participated in many construction projects, especially for the benefit of ordinary people - including jetties, bridges, dams, irrigation systems, wells and hostels. The knowledge of this most likely resulted from his studies with Dosho. Overall, the building owner it is about 49 temples ( 34 monks, 15 nuns ) attributed. Perhaps related to these trips, the map of Japan that bears his name was built. [NB 1]
Gyōkis travel activities were in clear contradiction with the former religious policy of ritsuryō nobility. So, the corresponding code of law, the Soni- ryō (僧尼 令), the activities of monks and priests forbade outside officially recognized temples and institutions. Since 718 edicts were issued against Gyōkis illegal activities regularly. Even in a passage from the Shoku Nihongi Rikkokushi he was still characterized as dangerous seducers of the masses, even though he had acquired by this time longer the acceptance of various government representatives.
He had been invited by the 721 - Gensho tennō to keep on the farm a lecture, which was officially permitted him to ordain two of his followers. Later, he developed close relations with the Shōmu moved - tennō, the 745, the first Daisōjō (such as " large - rectifier " ) appointed him the highest Buddhist Office. He is said to have been involved at the instigation of the imperial court in the construction of the Daibutsu at Todai -ji.
Gyōkis work already made him very popular during his lifetime. The Shoku Nihongi gives several examples in which he publicly ordained to the masses, so 705 lay at one time in the year 741 at the time of his death Gyoki supposed to have had over three thousand students, including Gyōshin ( 670-740 ) and Shogo or Shōgu (732 -811 ). His body was buried on the grounds of a temple on the Ikoma -yama.
Posthumously Gyoki was awarded by the imperial court even the title Bosatsu ( Bodhisattva ). His veneration in folk Buddhism in Japan continues to this day.