Kegon

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For the Japanese waterfall, see Kegon Falls.

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Kegon (華厳) ([kegõɴ], or in some dialects, [keŋõɴ]) is the name of the Japanese transmission of the Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism. This transmission occurred through the Korean Hwaeom tradition.

Huayan studies were founded in Japan when, in 736, the scholar-priest Rōben (良辯 or 良弁; originally a monk of the Hossō tradition) invited Shinshō (審祥, also in Japanese Shinjō, Chinese Shen-hsiang, Korean Simsang) to give lectures on the Avatamsaka Sutra at Kinshōsen-ji (金鐘山寺, also 金鐘寺 Konshu-ji or Kinshō-ji), the origin of later Tōdai-ji. When the construction of Tōdai-ji was completed, Rōben entered that temple to formally initiate Kegon as a field of study in Japanese Buddhism, and Kegon-shū would become known as one of the "Nanto Rikushū" (南都六宗, lit. The Six Buddhist Sect of Nanto (Nara). Kegon thought was later be popularized in Japan by Myōe (明惠), who combined its doctrines with those of Vajrayana and Gyōnen (凝然), and is most responsible for the establishment of the Tōdai-ji lineage of Kegon.