Ryōe 了惠 (1243–1330) was a Kamakura-era Tendai esoteric (Taimitsu 台密) master, known by his cloister-name Ryōinbō 了因房 (whence the title of his compendium KR6t0114 Ryōin-ketsu 了因決). He was in the Mt. Hiei Taimitsu tradition descended from Chōen 長宴 (長宴) and Ryōyū 良祐 (良祐).
His KR6t0114 Liǎo-yīn jué (J. Ryōin-ketsu, “Decisions by Ryōin”) is a forty-eight-fascicle large-scale procedural-doctrinal compendium of Tendai-esoteric ritual, doctrine, and kuden. The work treats: dhātu 駄都 (relic-veneration); the Mìjīng 祕經 (Esoteric-sūtra) kanjō great-procedure; cintāmaṇi relic-forms; Śūraṃgama divine-spell rites; the Adhyardhaśatikā Five-Buddha seed-syllables; the Three-Character Decision; homa procedures; and a wide range of further Tendai-esoteric procedural-doctrinal topics.
Ryōe’s work belongs to the same generation as Kōshū’s KR6t0110 Keiran-shūyōshū and represents the mature procedural-encyclopedic moment of medieval Taimitsu before the Edo-period systematizations of Yūken 宥賢 and his successors.
name: 了惠 pinyinName: Liǎo Huì / Ryōe Dōkō alternateNames: [Ryōe Dōkō, 了惠道光, 望西樓了惠, Bōsairō Ryōe, 道光, 厭欣沙門, Enkin Shamon] dynasty: 日本 birthDate: 1243 deathDate: 1330 cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId: created: 2026-05-12 updated: 2026-05-12
Ryōe Dōkō 了惠道光 (1243–1330), Kamakura-era Jōdo-shū monk and editor; common appellations Bōsairō 望西樓 (his cloister at Nison-in 二尊院 in Saga, Kyoto) and Enkin shamon 厭欣沙門 (“the yearning-for-rebirth-loathing-the-saha śramaṇa”). Disciple in the Chinzei-line of Jōdo-shū descending through Hōnen → Benchō → Ryōchū; received instruction from 良忠 Ryōchū during the latter’s Kyoto and Kamakura periods.
Ryōe Dōkō’s principal contribution is the two-part Hōnen anthology: the Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku 黒谷上人語燈録 (KR6t0317, 15 fasc., preface dated 文永十一年 = 1274 / 1 / 8, i.e. the Tathāgata’s enlightenment-day) and its supplement Shūi Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku 拾遺黒谷上人語燈録 (KR6t0318, 3 fasc.). These are the single most important early collections of 源空 Hōnen’s writings, kōroku records, and dharma-letters — sourced from manuscripts circulating among Hōnen’s senior disciples in the seventy years after his death. Ryōe Dōkō divided the material into “Sinitic” (漢) and “Vernacular Japanese” (和) volumes (here only the Sinitic / kanbun volumes are preserved in the Taishō); the Wagō 和語 volumes survive in the Jōdoshū zensho. The Gotōroku preface explicitly motivates the work by the rise of intra-school doctrinal disputes after Hōnen’s death — “the diverse opinions among the disciples in confusion, each claiming to follow the teacher’s instruction” — and offers the Gotōroku as the authoritative documentary record against schismatic interpretation.
Note: This person is to be distinguished from the homonymous Tendai Taimitsu master Ryōe (cloister-name 了因房 Ryōinbō), compiler of the KR6t0114 Ryōin-ketsu 了因決 above — though the two are sometimes conflated in modern reference works. The Pure-Land Ryōe Dōkō is the relevant person for all Hōnen/Jōdoshū contexts.