Kawaguchi Ekai (1866-1945) was the first Japanese to cross the Himalayas from Nepal to Tibet, which was then strictly closed to foreigners, seeking to obtain original Buddhist scriptures.

Ekai was born as the eldest son of the owner of Taruzen, a barrel shop in today’s Kita Hatago-cho district of the old Sakai city. His secular name was Sadajiro. At 14, he was inspired by a biography of the Buddha and vowed to abstain from meat, intoxicating beverages, and illicit sexual conduct.

At 25, Ekai became a priest of the Obaku school of Zen Buddhism. He felt that Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures had certain limitations, and decided to obtain the complete corpus of Buddhist scriptures in Tibetan and Sanskrit and bring them to Japan. In 1901 he became the first Japanese to visit Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, with both mental and material support from Hige Tokujuro and other friends in Sakai. After his return to Japan, he published a book titled Travels to Xizang (English edition named “Three years in Tibet”).

In 1904 he visited Tibet again, returning to Japan with Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and other materials.

When he was five years old, Ekai studied at Seikodo, a terakoya primary school operated by the Seigakuin. Visitors can experience the atmosphere of the school where Ekai studied.