Shunjō ［俊芿］ (1166–1227): The founder of Sennyū-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. Born in Higo Province, in 1184 he received the precepts to become a priest at Kanzeon-ji temple in Chikuzen Province. Thereafter he studied the teachings on the Buddhist precepts in Nara and Kyoto and returned to Higo where he founded Shōbō-ji temple and spread the teachings on the precepts. In 1199, deploring the decline of the practice of the precepts, he went to China where for twelve years he studied not only teachings on the precepts but also those of the T’ien-t’ai, Zen (Ch’an), and Pure Land schools. In 1211 he returned to Japan with more than two thousand volumes of Buddhist and non-Buddhist works. At the invitation of Eisai, the founder of the Japanese Rinzai school of Zen, Shunjō stayed at Kennin-ji temple in Kyoto for a time. In 1218 one of his followers donated to him a temple named Sen’yū-ji in Kyoto. At the time, Sen’yū-ji was in a state of disrepair, but Shunjō moved in, worked to repair it, and later renamed it Sennyū-ji temple. He made it into a center for the practice of the Precepts (Ritsu), Tendai, Zen, and Pure Land (Jōdo) teachings. He enjoyed respect and support from the Retired Emperor Gotoba, the court aristocracy, and the third regent of the Kamakura shogunate, Hōjō Yasutoki. He strove to revive the practice of precepts, and his doctrinal lineage was later called the Precepts school of the Northern Capital (Kyoto).