Kanjin

Kanjin (勧進, Kanjin^?) (or Kange) is a Japanese term for the many and various methods of a Buddhist monk to solicit donations. It generally indicates the recommendation or encouragement through chanted sutras. Solicited donations are usually intended for the establishment of new temples or statues or their renovations. Since the medieval age, Kanjin has come to mean "fund raising".

Kanjin usually means the solicitation of donations for temple construction or repair. It originally meant the action of monks who encourage the recitation of chanted sutras and who collect donations, thereby spreading Buddhism, but later meant chiefly raising money through fundraisers.

In the medieval age, construction of bridges or repairs of roads, and construction of official temples were also beneficiaries of Kanjin. These public works should have been funded by the governing bodies or local officials. However, those who did the job were Kanjins and they carried a scroll of Kanjin or Kanjincho and traveled in many areas of Japan and collected donations at temples or shrines or checkpoints called Sekisho. The money people paid respectively was very small, as in the idiomatic 4-letter phrase Isshi-Hansen which meant a piece of paper and a half sen (one hundredth of yen).

The work of kanjin was conducted by the monks who were called Kanjin-hijiri (literally "Kanjin saint") or Kanjin-monk, Kanjin-shōnin; they traveled and preached and received donations in money or rice. They took necessary costs and others were used for the original purposes. The most famous Kanjin monks included Gyōki (668 - 749) of the Nara period, Kūya (903 - 972) and Engyō (? - 1004- ?) of the Heian period. There were female kanjin called Kanjin-bikuni (priestess), including Seijun (? - 1566) of Rinzai school who devoted herself to the restoration of the Ise Grand Shrine. Formal recognition of priestesses was delayed because the Imperial Household had not recognized them.

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