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LINGUIST

Kūkai

774 - 835

Photo of Kūkai

Icon of person Kūkai

Kūkai (空海; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835), born Saeki no Mao (佐伯 眞魚), posthumously called Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師, "The Grand Master who Propagated the Dharma"), was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) under the monk Huiguo. Upon returning to Japan, he founded Shingon—the Japanese branch of Vajrayana Buddhism. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Kūkai has received more than 582,009 page views. His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 38 in 2019). Kūkai is the 17th most popular linguist (down from 16th in 2019), the 119th most popular biography from Japan (down from 99th in 2019) and the most popular Japanese Linguist.

Kūkai is most famous for the establishment of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, which emphasizes the importance of meditation and mantras.

Memorability Metrics

  • 580k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 63.06

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 41

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.33

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.02

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Kūkais by language


Among LINGUISTS

Among linguists, Kūkai ranks 17 out of 161. Before him are Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Edward Sapir, August Schleicher, Georges Dumézil, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and Rasmus Rask. After him are Antoine Meillet, William Jones, Johann Martin Schleyer, Otto Jespersen, Nikolai Trubetzkoy, and Ignác Goldziher.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 774, Kūkai ranks 1.  Among people deceased in 835, Kūkai ranks 2. Before him is Muhammad al-Jawad. After him are Jayavarman II and Berengar the Wise.

Others Born in 774

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  • Photo of Kūkai

    Kūkai

    774 - 835

    HPI: 63.06

    Rank: 1

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Others Deceased in 835

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Kūkai ranks 119 out of 6,048. Before him are Kōnosuke Matsushita (1894), Paulo Miki (1564), Emperor Reigen (1654), Akio Morita (1921), Emperor Momozono (1741), and Kakuichi Mimura (1931). After him are Empress Kōjun (1903), Emperor Nintoku (290), Emperor Kōrei (-341), Ken Watanabe (1959), Isamu Akasaki (1929), and Jiro Horikoshi (1903).

Others born in Japan

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Among LINGUISTS In Japan

Among linguists born in Japan, Kūkai ranks 1. After him are Kunio Yanagita (1875) and Takekazu Asaka (1952).

Japanese born Linguists

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