Gyōki
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Gyōki (行基, 668–749) was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi.[1] According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent.[2][3]
Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-dera, a temple in Nara, at the age of 15 and studied under Dōshō as one of his first pupils. Gyōki studied Yogacara (唯識), a core doctrine of Hosso, at Yakushi-ji. In 704, he returned to his birthplace to make his home into a temple, then started to travel around Japan to preach to commoners and help the poor.[4] He formed a volunteer group to help the poor mainly in the Kansai region, building 49 monasteries and nunneries that also functioned as hospitals for the poor.[5] Gyōki and his followers roamed the countryside, teaching common people about Buddhism, building temples that were more like community centers and organizing irrigation and other public works projects.[6]
Since regulations at the time strictly prohibited activities by priests outside their monastic compounds, his travelling around the country made him a non-official, private priest, not registered through the Office of Priestly Affairs (僧綱, Sōgō).[7] Gyōki and his followers were persecuted by the government, but his popularity and his administrative skill in public works later earned him a pardon. In 745 he became the first priest to be given the rank of Daisōjō.[5]