Kodo Daishi (774-835) is one of the most respected and popular Buddhist masters of Japan. He was the founder of Shingon or Esoteric Buddhism in Japan, a civil engineer, and a wandering saint. Many achievements have been attributed to him including this collection of 48 maxims, which some scholars say are gleanings of the Chinese classics. Whichever the case, Kobo Daishi is a cultural hero in Japan and a man of incontestable genius and extraordinary accomplishments. School children throughout Japan for nearly a millennium began their education by learning these wise sayings in the Jitsugokyo, "Teachings of the Words of Truth."