Gon-zoar, Kinzo

Gon-Zoar, Kinzo a Japanese Buddhist, monk, was born in 758, in the district of Taka-Tki, a province of Yamato. One day his mother saw in a vision an august being embracing her in his arms, and shortly afterwards she bore this son. In his twelfth year he entered a hermitage. About the year 796 he commenced the publication of a commentary in eight parts, of Fats-Ke-gya (in Chinese Fa- Hoa-King), or sacred book of the Japanese. After his death in 827, he received the name of So-dzyo. He is famous in Japan for having possessed such a high degree of knowledge on the Buddhistic dogmas, and among others for having fixed the actual order of the Japanese alphabet. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.