(left), 18th chief abbot () of
Enryaku-ji The sequence historically commonly used in Japanese Buddhist temples, consisting of one hundred prophetic five-
character quatrains, is traditionally attributed to the
Heian period Tendai monk
Ryōgen (912–985), posthumously known as or more popularly, , and is thus called or the , after a legend claiming that these verses were revealed to him by the
Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Kannon). Historically, however, the Japanese system is thought to have been modeled after the Chinese , a similar form of divination involving a tube full of bamboo sticks and a sequence of written or printed oracles. A wooden container containing oracular lots dated 1409 (
Ōei 16) is preserved in
Tendai-ji in
Iwate Prefecture, suggesting that this method of fortune telling was imported to Japan somewhere before the
Muromachi period (1336–1573). The quatrains of the are themselves ultimately based on a set of oracles dating from the
Southern Song period (1127–1279) known as the (, ; Japanese: ). The became popular in the
Edo period due to the notable monk
Tenkai (1536–1643), who is credited with attaching Ryōgen's name to it. A story related by one of Tenkai's disciples claims that Tenkai was once visited in a dream by Ryōgen, who revealed to him the existence of the 100 quatrains, which had been supposedly lost for centuries. Copies of these short poems were eventually discovered at
Togakushi Shrine in
Shinano Province (modern
Nagano Prefecture) and widely disseminated. The eventually became standard across many Buddhist temples (even those not affiliated with the Tendai school) and served as a model for other sequences. Various books explaining the meaning of the oracles were published during the period, suggesting their widespread popularity. ==Fortunes==