KOBLENZ, ko'blnts. A town of Prussia. See COBLEN Z.
KoB(5 DAISHI, ko'bt, drshi'• (Sinico-Japa nese. Great Teacher, who Spreads Abroad the Law). The posthumous title of one Ku-Kni, a noted Buddhist saint of Japan. and the founder of tile sect known there as Shingon, or 'True Words.' In 1898 its temples numbered 12.807. lie was miraculously conceived, and ninny won derful tales are told of him. He was born in the Province of Saniiki in 774. went to school in Kioto in 7SS. Dissatisfied with Confucian teaching. lie entered into relations with the Paul (Bags, was admitted a priest in 793. receiving then the name of Ku-Kni. which means *Space and Sea,' and in 795 became Abbot of To-ji, in Kioto. In 804 he was sent to China by the Gov ernment as a student ; became a disciple there of a priest of the Yogaellara or Tantra school, whose mystic doctrines he imbibed and later in• trodueed into Japan, to which he had returned in 806. He built several monasteries. the most famous of which is that of Koya-san. in Kinshin.
about. 50 miles Irmo Osaka. In 835 he died in a sitting posture in the presence of his disciples, who had been for the occasion. and was earried in this posture to his vaulted grave. The title of Kobodaishi was conferred on him by the Mikado in 9'21. Ile is said to have in vented the 1 -r0.1111, or Japanese syllabary of 47 letters. and he tire system of doctrine which is known as Riobil Shinto. in which he reconciled. or attempted to reconcile. Confucian ism. Shinto, and Buddhism. rontendlino• that he had received a revelation from the 'food producing god' at Is,: (q.v.); that the native deities were merely manifestations of Buddha in a previous state of existence. Con sult: Griffis. The NeligionR of Japan (New York. I395), nut) Satow, "The Revival of Pore Shin to." in the Transactions of the lsintir Society of Japan. vol. iii., Appendix (Yokohama. 1875).