Dōhan 道範 (1178–1252) — Kamakura-period Japanese Shingon 真言 scholar-monk of Mount Kōya 高野山, and one of the principal post-Kakuban Shingon doctrinal writers of his generation. He was a senior disciple of 明遍 Myōhen (1142–1224) and a leading figure in the early-thirteenth-century Kōyasan scholastic establishment.
His doctrinal interests spanned the post-Kūkai Shingon commentarial corpus (Kūkai’s own works, KR6o0084 Shì móhēyǎn lùn), the Esoteric ritual tradition, and the late-Heian / early-Kamakura kemmitsu 顯密 doctrinal-synthesis literature. His three main surviving canonical works are:
- Shì móhēyǎn lùn yìngjiào chāo 釋摩訶衍論應教鈔 (KR6o0095, T69n2288) — sub-commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Shì móhēyǎn lùn KR6o0084.
- Jōō shō 貞應抄 — sub-commentary on the Mahāvairocanasūtra commentary.
- Gyōhō kan’yō shō 行法肝葉鈔 (T2503) — comprehensive Esoteric ritual manual.
His career was marked by a period of political exile to Sanuki (Shikoku) from c. 1242 — the Sanuki ruzai 讚岐流罪 — in connection with Mount Kōya factional disputes; he returned to Kōyasan in his last years.
DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001550.
Source: DILA A001550; standard Japanese Shingon biographical sources; Kōyasan kōsō-den.