Background
Sonnyo was born in 1622 in Tosa, Nara, Japan.
Sonnyo was born in 1622 in Tosa, Nara, Japan.
At the age of 17 Sonnyo entered the Hasedera Temple in Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture) and studied esoteric Buddhism.
Sonnyo became a well-known scholar and chief priest at the Taishoji Temple in Musashi Province (Saitama Prefecture). Later he was head priest at the Chisokuin Temple on Mount Tsukuba (Ibaraki Prefecture) and then 12th head of the Hasedera Temple by order of the Shogunate in 1681.