Chitsu (智通)

Chitsu (years of birth and death unknown) was a priest of Hosso sect of Buddhism (Japanese equivalent of the Chinese Faxiang sect or Dharma-character school), who lived in the Asuka period. His secular surname was Yue.

In 658, together with Chitatsu he traveled to Tang China aboard a boat from Shilla (ancient Korea), receiving musho-shujo-gi (literally, musho means 'no self-nature,' shujo 'sentient beings,' and gi 'doctrine or system') by Xuanzang. Upon his return to Japan Chitsu propagated the Hosso-sect Buddhism, which was supposedly the second transmission of the Hosso-sect Buddhism in Japan. He built Kannon-ji Temple in Heijo-kyo Capital (an ancient capital of Japan in Nara) and was given the Buddhist monk rank of Sojo (the top rank) in 673.

[Original Japanese]