Ryoken (亮賢)

Ryoken (1611 - April 18, 1687) was a Shingishingon sect monk during the early Edo period. He came from Kozuke Province.

He took the tonsure at Tokujoji Temple in his native place Kozuke Province, and studied esoteric Buddhism at Hasedera Temple in Yamato Province. Then he became the chief priest at Tokujoji Temple where he took the tonsure and Daijogokokuji Temple in Takasaki. It is commonly believed that Ryoken, who was renowned for fortune-telling, divined the future of Otama no kata (later Keishoin) who were to be a concubine of the third shogun Iemitsu TOKUGAWA and prophesied that she would give birth to the fifth shogun Tsunayoshi TOKUGAWA. In 1681, he was ordered to found Gokoku-ji Temple as a prayer temple of Keishoin by Tsunayoshi.

[Original Japanese]