Reclusive Saint - Inton Hijiri

…It was these saints who educated the common people in both the capital and the countryside and played a leading role in the development of Buddhism for the common people. They went into the mountains and undertook arduous training by abstaining from grain and food, left the main temple and lived in seclusion in villages and villages, or traveled around the country and engaged in a wide range of fundraising activities, such as chanting Buddhist prayers, building temples and Buddha statues, copying sutras, casting bells, and building bridges. They were given various names based on their characteristics, such as grain-breaking saints, ten-grain saints, Bessho saints, hermit saints, traveling saints, and fundraising saints. They were also active in preaching literature and the arts, and were called shodo saints, and were also called Zenkoji saints (Zenkoji), Shitennoji saints, and Koya saints, after the bases where many saints gathered. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to the "reclusive saint" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…都鄙の庶民を教化し，庶民仏教の展開に主導的役割を果たしたのは実にこの聖たちであった。山林に入って断穀不食の苦修練行を積んだり，本寺から離れて別所や村里に隠遁したり，あるいは廻国遊行（ゆぎよう）して念仏，造寺，造仏，写経，鋳鐘，架橋などはば広い勧進（かんじん）活動を行い，穀断（こくだち）聖，十穀聖，別所聖，隠遁聖，廻国聖，勧進聖などその特徴から多様な呼称が生まれた。唱導文芸や芸能にも活躍し，唱導聖などとよばれ，また聖が多く集まる拠点にちなんで善光寺聖(善光寺)，四天王寺聖，高野聖などと称された。…

※「隠遁聖」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報