Jakushō ［寂照］ (d. 1034): A priest of the Tendai school in Japan. His wife’s death awoke him to the impermanence of life, motivating him to leave secular life and become a priest. He studied the Tendai doctrine under Genshin and Esoteric Buddhism under Ningai. In 1003 he journeyed to China, and the following year he met Emperor Chen-tsung, who gave him the title Great Teacher Yüan-t’ung ( Entsū). He brought with him a list of twenty-seven questions from Genshin concerning the T’ien-t’ai doctrine, which he submitted to the T’ien-t’ai master Chih-li. After having studied under Chih-li, Jakushō intended to return to Japan, but at the urging of the provincial official Ting Wei, he remained at Wu-men-ssu temple. Ting Wei honored him and gave him alms and support. He died in Hang-chou in 1034.
  In addition to Genshin’s questions, Jakushō brought with him a copy of Nan-yüeh’s work The Mahayana Method of Concentration and Insight, a text that had been lost for centuries in China. In that country, the work was known only as an entry in a catalog of Buddhist scriptures. Tsun-shih, a priest of the T’ien-t’ai school, was so delighted to read it that he wrote an introduction to this work in which he stated: “It [Buddhism] came first from the west [India], like the moon appearing. Now it is returning from the east [Japan], like the sun rising.”