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Tendai, also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 Tendai hokke shū, sometimes just "hokke shū") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese monk Saichō (posthumously known as Dengyō Daishi). The Tendai school, which has been based on Mount Hiei since its inception, rose to prominence during the Heian period (794-1185). It gradually eclipsed the powerful Hossō school and competed with the rival Shingon school to become the most influential sect at the Imperial court. By the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Tendai had become one of the dominant forms of Japanese Buddhism, with numerous temples and vast landholdings. During the Kamakura period, various monks left Tendai (seeing it as corrupt) to establish their own "new" or "Kamakura" Buddhist schools such as Jōdo-shū, Nichiren-shū and Sōtō Zen. The destruction of the head temple of Enryaku-ji by Oda Nobunaga in 1571, as well as the geographic shift of the capital away from Kyoto to Edo, further weakened Tendai's influence. In Chinese and Japanese, its name is identical to Tiantai, its parent Chinese Buddhism school. Both traditions emphasize the importance of the Lotus Sutra and revere the teachings of Tiantai patriarchs, especially Zhiyi. In English, the Japanese romanization Tendai is used to refer specifically to the Japanese school. According to Hazama Jikō, the main characteristic of Tendai "is its advocacy of a comprehensive Buddhism...the idea that all the teachings of the Buddha are ultimately without contradiction and can be unified in one comprehensive and perfect system." Other unique elements include an exclusive use of the bodhisattva precepts for ordination (without the pratimoksha), a practice tradition based on the "Four Integrated Schools" (Pure Land, Zen, Mikkyo and Precepts), and an emphasis on the study of Chinese Esoteric Buddhist sources. David W. Chappell sees Tendai as "the most comprehensive and diversified" Buddhist tradition which provides a religious framework that is "suited to adapt to other cultures, to evolve new practices, and to universalize Buddhism.

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