Background
Shinnō Takaoka was born in 799. He was the third son of Emperor Heizei.
廃太子高岳親王
Shinnō Takaoka was born in 799. He was the third son of Emperor Heizei.
He was designated heir apparent to Emperor Saga in 809 but was removed from that position as a result of the uprising led by Fujiwara no Kusuko the following year.
He later entered the clergy, assuming the religious name Shinnyo, and became a disciple of Kukai. Troubled with doubts as to whether the Buddhism transmitted to Japan represented the true teaching of Sakya- muni, he journeyed to China in 862 and questioned various eminent members of the Chinese clergy, but they could tell him no more than he had learned from Kukai. He thereupon resolved to go to India, the birthplace of the Buddhist faith, setting out from China in 865 at the age of sixty-six, but he died along the way at a place designated in Chinese as the state of Lo-yueh, which scholars surmise corresponds to the area of Singapore.