Keichū

Biography:

Keichū was a Buddhist priest and a scholar of Kokugaku in the mid Edo period. Keichū’s grandfather was a personal retainer of Kato Kiyomasa but his father was a rōnin from the Amagasaki fief. When he was 13 Keichū left home to become an acolyte of the Shingon sect studying at Kaijō in Myōhōji Imasato Osaka. He subsequently attained the post of Ajari at Mount Kōya and then became chief priest at Mandara-in in Ikutama Osaka.