Tendai’s hallmark was its all-embracing curriculum, knitting together meditation, esoteric ritual, and the Lotus Sūtra’s universal message. That broad toolkit left an indelible mark on virtually every major Japanese Buddhist current that followed.

Zen, for example, sprang from Tendai soil on Mount Hiei. Eisai and Dōgen both trained there before journeying to China and returning with a sharper focus on seated meditation (zazen). Though Zen later distilled practice down to “just sitting,” its founders never fully shed Tendai’s integrative spirit. Even today, many Zen halls still observe Tendai-derived ceremonies during seasonal rites.

Pure Land schools also drank deeply from Tendai’s well. Hōnen, initially a Tendai monk, wrestled with its complex rituals until settling on nenbutsu recitation as the surefire path to Amitābha’s Pure Land. That shift—chopping away most practices to favor a single, heartfelt chant—was revolutionary, but the very idea of tailoring Buddhism to everyday people echoes Tendai’s flexible approach.

Nichiren’s fiery devotion to the Lotus Sūtra can be traced straight back to Tendai’s scripture-centered teaching. Nichiren simply turned up the intensity, making “Myōhō Renge-kyō” not just a study text but the beating heart of salvation. His flair for public debate and bold proclamations recalls Tendai’s own mix of scholarship and ritual drama.

Even Shingon’s elaborate mantras and mandalas found kindred energy on Mount Hiei, where Tendai temples had already woven Chinese esoteric rites into their repertoire. The result was a domino effect: Shingon and Tendai traded ideas so freely that, by modern times, it’s sometimes hard to pin down where one tradition stops and the other begins.

In recent years, Tendai-inspired Lotus Sūtra study groups have gone viral on social media, demonstrating that its message still resonates. With the 1,200th anniversary of Saichō’s arrival looming on the horizon, interest in this “mother school” shows no sign of waning—its roots run deep, and its branches keep sprouting fresh shoots across the Buddhist landscape.