Mongaku Shōnin (文覚上人) (role )

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Biography:

This is about the historical figure Mongaku Shōnin:

"By birth, Endō Moritō. He lost his father, Shigetō, when yet a child, and was brought up by Haruki Michiyoshi. At the age of 18, he became enamored of his cousin Kesa Gozen, who was married to Minamoto Wataru. After long hesitations and resistance, she feigned to yield to his solicitations on the condition that he would first kill Wataru. Moritō consented and, the following night, he entered the house of his cousin; but Kesa Gozen took the place of her husband and received the fatal blow destined for him: Moritō became a bonze and took the name of Mongaku. Some time later, he undertook to rebuild the temple Shingo-ji of Mount Takao (Yamashiro) and started on a begging tour for that purpose: he presented himself before the ex-emperor Go-Shirakawa, then residing at the temple Hōshō-ji, but having failed in some way in the respect due to his sovereign, he was banished to Izu (1179). There he met Yoritomo and pressed him to begin war with the Taira; he secretly went to the palace of Kiyomori, at Fukuhara, whither the Court had been transfered, and, through the kind offices of Fujiwara Mitsuyoshi, obtained from Go-Shirakawa a rescript addressed to Yoritomo, commanding him to take up arms and deliver the emperor from the tyranny of the Taira. Yoritomo hesitated no more and entered the lists. After his victory, he had the Shinjo-ji repaired and always treated Mongaku with the greatest kindness. The ruling emperor Go-Toba, showed rather more ardor for pleasure and entertainments than for administration; Mongaku advised Yoritomo to replace him by his brother Morisada-shinnō, but the Shōgun recoiled from doing such an act. When Yoritomo died (1199), Mongaku believed the moment opportune to accomplish his design, but the plot was discovered and the turbulent bonze was exiled to the island of Sado, where he died miserably at the age of 80."

Quoted from: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan by E. Papinot, pp. 400-401.

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Mongaku had his contemporary detractors

Abe Yasurō wrote in his article 'The Book of Tengu: Goblins, Devils, and Buddhas in Medieval Japan' that the archbishop Jien (慈円: 1155-1225) in his 1219 Gukanshō (愚管抄) or 'My Foolish Views of History' that "...Mongaku 文覚, a fund-raising monk who Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) employed for re-construction at Tōji that was dedicated to the memorialization (tsuizen 追善) of Go-Shirakawa. Mongaku is described here as "a person with ascetic training but without knowledge, who denounced and and spoke ill of others — and worshipped Tengu."