Chronology of the Shingon Mission History in China

According to the research conducted by the author, the first time a Japanese person visited China to preach Buddhism was in 1873. Ogurusu Kocho was the first one to visit China. He was from Ohista prefecture and was a priest from Jodo Shinshu Higashi Hongan-ji School. (For more details, please refer to "Shingon Preaching History 1" on our website.) Shingon started preaching 35 years after Ogurusu. The first preaching was done by Fukushima (formerly named Yagami) Ninga. He started "Dalian Takanosan Daikyoushikai" in a famous port city of Dalian, located on the tip of the Liaodong peninsula in 1908. Since then, close to 500 people engaged in preaching all over China until 1945 when World War II ended. There were many young priests who lost their lives in the foreign country. After the missionaries came back from China after the war, they said "we came back with nothing. The least we want is for the sect to make historical documentation of our activities in China." They requested the documentation at a sect assembly in Takanosan. However, it was never accomplished until now because they were worried about General MacArthur making complaints. So this website is the first one to publicize the material for the Shingon mission in China comprehensively. Materials and theses will be publicized soon. (Ryuko Matsushita)